Your Past, My Future
by Slavok
Summary: Lelouch suffered defeat, despair, and ultimately betrayal, but when he faces the Emperor, he wakes up before Zero was created. Suddenly in the past, he has the power to remake the future. Time travel. Probably Lelouch Kallen pairing.
1. Chapter 1

Your Past, My Future

Chapter One

a/n I do not own Code Geass

Zero woke up with dreams of kings and emperors, floating shrines above the clouds, of trust and betrayal, hope and despair; all these images and sensations possessed his mind as he tried to open his eyes and force himself out of bed with all the vigor and passion that usually gripped him in the mornings, which is to say, none.

He groggily made his way to his bathroom sink to put in the custom contact lens C.C. had made for him. It wouldn't do for a member of the Black Knights to be subjected to his uncontrollable Geass. If he told someone to go away, he might never come back.

Zero opened up a drawer and reached for his contact lens, and found…nothing. He checked again, pulling out random articles and looked into the other compartments and behind his mirror, and even examined the floor before he realized where he was.

He was at a home.

It was the same home he had lived in for years, so he hadn't noticed it at first, but he thought—he was _certain_—that when he had fallen asleep the night before, he was on the flagship of the Black Knights.

Zero's mind raced, finally expelling the last vestiges of slumber. All of his enemies knew him as Lelouch, so he would be a fool to hide in his own house, and if he was captured, who among his foes would place him in an exact replica of his old bedroom?

A light tapping on the door interrupted his thoughts. "Come in," he called, carefully closing his left eye. If he wasn't captured, he would ask C.C. to make him another lens as soon as things started making…

"Excuse me, Lelouch-sama," Sayoko said respectfully. "Nunnally –sama wanted to know if you would come down to breakfast with her."

…sense.

"…what?"

"Nunnally-sama wanted to know if you were coming," she repeated. "Um, Lelouch-sama, are you unwell? If you like, I could tell your sister"—

"No, no, I'm fine," Zero replied. "Tell Nunnally that I'll be down shortly."

"Yes, Lelouch-sama," she replied before turning to leave. "Oh, and do hurry. If you take too long, you'll be late for school."

_Late for…school?_ That was an odd thing to say to the leader of an international military force. And…Nunnally. What was _she_ doing here? His sister hadn't been in this house for over a year, most of that time he wasn't even aware that he had a sister. Her place at the dinner table had been taken by his false brother, Rolo.

Zero shook his head ruefully. Rolo had been planted to spy on him and, if necessary, assassinate him, but in the end, Rolo was truer than any of the Black Knights who followed him, and it was he, Lelouch, who was false. And yet, for an entire year, he had thought that he and Rolo were related because of when the Emperor had—

_That's it!_

After Rolo died, Zero went to face the Emperor, a man who could not be killed nor controlled by his Geass. The 98th Britanian Emperor was waiting for him in that shrine above the clouds. He said that he was trying to do…something. Something big. Perhaps he sent Zero here, stuck in some dream of his past memories, or maybe he had used his Geass to completely rewrite his memories, like before. But why the Emperor would give him memories of leading a war against the Britanian Empire, Zero could not imagine. But then again, Charles zi Britannia had done it before, so maybe his Geass didn't work right when used twice on the same person.

Lelouch left his room and proceeded toward the dining area. This place was far to real, to _perfect_ to be fake, and not even his memory held the detail that his eyes now viewed. And then, before he knew it, he saw his sister.

She sat there, just as she had always sat during all the years that they had grown up together. She was just as he had remembered her, with her long, wavy hair, her thin, frail legs, her permanently closed eyes, her soft, gentle face, and her smile. That magic smile seemed to show infinite contentment, unbothered by her crippled legs and blind eyes—for why would someone whose soul shined with so much pure light need to receive light? And what need had she to walk when she could spread joy wherever she was? Hers was a smile devoid of such vile passions as hatred, cruelty, or revenge. It was a smile that Lelouch had known, grown up with, loved.

It was that smile that greeted him now.

"Good morning, Onii-sama," she said cheerfully, as though the only thing she wanted in the world was to have breakfast with her elder brother.

The last time he had seen his sister, she was the puppet princess governing Area 11. The last time he had heard of her, it had been in the report naming her dead, caught helplessly in the massive explosion of the Freya bomb.

"Good…good morning, Nana-chan," he said, trying to keep his voice clear.

She faced him, concerned, and Lelouch was glad she couldn't see as his eyes watered, but she knew him too well for him to hide anything from him. "Onii-sama? Is something wrong?"

"No, Nana-chan," he said as a rebellious tear fell down his cheek. "I…I'm"—he reached out for her hand, and squeezed it more tightly than was probably comfortable for her, but she didn't cry out. She reached out to touch her face, but before she could, Lelouch wrapped his arms around her, giving her the hug that he hadn't given her in far too long. "I'm just glad to be with you."

He never lied to his sister. Even if she could be fooled, he didn't think he could bring himself to do it. And he wasn't lying. It was probably the most honest thing he'd said his whole life.

WWW

His Geass was gone. It no longer menaced in his left eye, nor could he activate it on command. He experimented a few times on random people, and instead of unquestioning obedience, he got confused looks and oblivious questions ("What? Why do you want me to stand on one leg? Well, I could, I guess…"). Then, during class, while the teacher was giving a lecture about electrolytes and the solubility of ions in water, which was boring the _first_ time he heard it, Zero pulled out his class schedule, which marked the year as 2017 a.t.b.

_2017_. That was one year previous, the same year that he had organized the Black Knights. So, if this wasn't an illusion or a trick, he was in the past. Zero knew he should be shocked, but not too long ago, he believed that mind control was a myth, that freezing time was impossible, and that most people actually _died_ when shot in the head, so in comparison, whatever was going on didn't seem particularly overwhelming.

His mind kept on wandering back toward his encounter with the emperor, and the—what was it?—Ragnarok Connection. He was seeking to recreate the world, to forge a changeless, stagnant existence. _A world of memories._

When he had fought with Suzaku, his oldest friend and fiercest foe, it was a difference of methods, but their objectives were mostly the same. Against the Emperor, it was just the opposite. Zero had fought to achieve the future; Charles vi Britania sought the past.

And apparently he succeeded.

He glanced at his fellow classmates. Some of them were almost the same as when he last saw them. Milly was bossy and controlling, but in an admirable sort of way that only she could manage. Rivalz, his old friend, was louder and more rowdy than Lelouch remembered, but was essentially the same. And then there was Shirley.

Shirley flashed him a smile that had more to do with her eyes than her mouth. She was smiling last he saw her too, as she lay, blood pooling around her, her hand growing cold as she told him—_I love you, Lulu. No matter what, I—LIVE! LIVE! I COMMAND YOU TO—will always…_

Zero shook his head, forcing himself back to the present. Her death was wrong, a tragedy, but it was in the past—although technically, he was too.

Two rows in front of him sat Kallen. Before he became Zero, Lelouch never looked twice at her, and she never looked twice at him. At school, she was quiet, meek, with a chronic illness that kept her out of physical activities and often caused her to miss school. Meanwhile, she worked as a terrorist, using a different personality, a different vitality, and even a different name. In short, her life was immersed in lies, which was something Zero understood perfectly.

WWW

Kallen ate her lunch outside with her friends, if they could be called her friends. She tried to keep a low profile at school, and it wouldn't do to bite someone's head off for being a bloodsucking Britannian prick. They couldn't really help how they were born, but she still couldn't invite her classmates to see what she was doing after school.

Walking through the grounds, she noticed that guy, Lelouch, looking at her. She couldn't say that he was the least attractive guy at school, but she could say that he was one of the most arrogant. And right now, she kind of wanted to.

"Is there anything I can do for you?" she asked with a respect she did not feel.

"What? No. Why do you ask?"

"Nothing," she replied. "It's just that you've been staring at me the whole day."

"Is that so? That's odd. I didn't notice."

_Idiot._ "Well, just stop." She turned around and started to walk away.

"Kallen, wait!"

She stopped instinctively, though she would have preferred to keep on going.

"Are you doing anything later today, after school?"

_Yes, I'm going to go kill Britannian snobs like you._ "I've got plans."

Lelouch let her go and didn't bother her more. He couldn't use the Geass to force her cooperation, not yet anyway. He considered using her feelings for him to manipulate her into giving him information on her resistance cell, but he decided not to. First of all, he doubted that she even had feelings for him yet, and more importantly, the feelings that women had for him usually involved him having guns pointed at him.

"Hey, Lulu!" called Rivalz. "So are we going or not?"

_Going?_ "Going where?"

"To the chess match! You told me about it yesterday, I remember you used the phrase, 'worth a fortune.'"

He was returning from a chess match with someone when it all started. He was passing through the Shinjuku ghetto, when he ran into the truck that had C.C. in it. If he missed that chance to obtain the Geass, he might never become Zero.

"Of course I am," he replied. "Uh, did I tell you where it is?"

WWW

"I can't believe you've forgotten where it is," Rivalz said on his motorcycle. "I mean, when people are offering an amount with that many zeros, that's not something you just forget."

"It must have slipped my mind," Lelouch replied calmly. "By the way, could you drop me off here?"

"Where? Here?"

"Yes, on the side of the road, if you don't mind."

"But, but Lulu, we're practically in the ghetto!"

"I know. But there's something I need to do here, so if you don't mind…"

"Uh, okay, I guess." He stopped the bike. "Do you want me to wait for you?"

"No, that's fine," Lelouch replied. "This may take a while."

Zero looked at the intersection where it all started. It was here where he had unwittingly fallen into a terrorist's truck, gained the power of kings, countered Clovis's massacre, and personally assassinated his half brother. If it didn't happen exactly the same way…

It occurred to him that he wasn't even sure what day it happened.

_Oh well,_ he thought. _I guess I'll just have to wait._

WWW

"Have you noticed something off with Lelouch?"

Milly glanced up at Rivalz. "You know what? I was thinking exactly the same thing. He seems even more distant than usual, and that's saying something."

Rivalz nodded his head in agreement. "Yeah, I know. And last week, he asked me to drop him off in the middle of the ghetto, for no reason at all. And the other day, I was passing by, and I saw him in the exact same place!"

"That _is_ odd." Milly glanced at Shirley to make sure she was listening. "You don't think that he might be going there to see his girlfriend, do you?"

Shirley's head jerked up and her mouth dropped open.

"Well that would explain a lot," Rivalz admitted. "But if she lives in the ghetto, then she would have to be, well, an eleven."

"That's impossible!" Shirley cried. "Lelouch wouldn't go into a crooked part of the city for _that!_ There's got to be another explanation!"

"Well, what else would he do in a place like that?" Milly eyed Shirley lazily. "I mean, what else can you _get_ in a place like that that you can't get anywhere else? Unless…no. You don't think that Lulu's on _drugs_ do you?" Milly didn't want to believe it, she didn't even want to think it, but she loved watching Shirley squirm.

"_What?_" she shrieked. "But—no—he—Rivalz!" She pointed an accusing finger at him. "This is all your fault!"

"What? How is this my fault?"

"Who was it who's always dragging him off to wild parts of the city? Who is it who's always encouraging him to gamble? If it weren't for you, Lulu wouldn't be _doing_ dangerous things like that!"

"Hey, he's the one who asks me for a ride, and he's the one who tells me where to go. And I don't encourage him to gamble; the only reason I bet on him is because that guy _never ever_ loses!"

"And besides, I'd do dangerous things no matter whom I'm with."

The student council members all looked at Lelouch as he strode into the room, unperturbed that everyone was starting rumors about him.

"I'm sorry I'm late," he said. "My Japanese girlfriend called to yell at me about my drug use."

WWW

The tedious affairs of a normal high school student was never something that enthralled his interest, even before he knew the alternative. Lelouch couldn't force himself to care about the gossip or the dating drama, and he had already learned everything that they were taught the year before. But day after day, nothing happened, so he was gradually forced to embrace the nothingness of normalcy.

"Check."

For him, normalcy involved a great deal of chess and dirty money.

It occurred to him that if he was in the past, then the Emperor and Suzaku had also gone back in time, because they were both with him when it happened. And if Charles zi Britannia was from the future, he may have prevented C.C. from coming here in the first place. And if that were the case, could he defeat the empire, not as Zero, the man of miracles, but just as a brilliant tactician? That was his original plan, and he might be able to persuade Kallen to let him into her resistance unit, but…

His opponent was forced to take his attacking bishop with a rook, which Lelouch promptly captured. The nobleman he was playing wasn't the worst player ever born, but neither was he putting up much of a fight. As the man pondered his next move, Lelouch's eyes wandered over to the television set, where the newswoman was reporting some tragic bombing.

"…where eight Britannians and fifty-one others were killed by…"

Blah, blah, blah. _In my day, they wouldn't even bother reporting something so trivial compared to the Black Rebellion or the war to liberate Japan._

His opponent made yet another tactical blunder and let his knight be pinned to his remaining rook. Meanwhile, the news was interrupted with a so-called emergency report,

"…in a truck. The military is currently working to intercept them, but they have stolen a capsule of poisonous gas, and so we urge you to stay indoors. They were last seen on the road K-47, so…"

_Pretty tame emergency,_ he mused. _Now, if it were a stolen Freya warhead, it would be an emergency, but poisonous gas was just—_

Just then his mind clicked. _Poisonous gas! That's what they called it!_ He had personally used the capsule as a bluff to rescue Suzaku, but that capsule really contained…

"Oh no," Lelouch said calmly. "What have I done? I appear to have lost the game." He flicked his king over in forfeit and got up.

"What? What do you mean?" asked the noble. "You're winning!"

"Technically, but you'll be able to capture my king in a few moves. It's rather straight forward, really. I can't see why I didn't see it sooner. But anyway, I've lost, you've won, and if you don't mind, I have to go."

WWW

a/n So the other day I was bored witless when my brother suggested some anime series I've never heard of. Two days later, I finished every episode of Code Geass ever written. There's something inherently disappointing about endings. If the ending's bad, you're disappointed because it's bad. If it's good, you're disappointed because it's over, so while I was waiting for my beta to get back to me, I decided to write this. Originally, I wanted to do a crossover with Death Note, replacing Zero with L (Lelouch starts with L, and if I replaced him with Kira, I don't think anyone would have noticed), but I wasn't exactly sure what to do with that, so I settled on time travel. I got the idea from Here and Now, Then and Again, and Mixed with the Lightning of Slaughter. The first two are exceptionally well-rounded—and addicting—fanfics, and the last one is madness on steroids. All three are favorited.


	2. Chapter 2

Your Past, My Future

Chapter Two

a/n I mentioned this before, but I don't own anything. Not yet anyway.

Rivalz and Lelouch road down the highway as fast as the motorbike could go. Any other day, Lelouch would be enjoying the wind in his face or simply reading a good book, but today was different. Today he would either obtain the power of the Geass, or his chance would be lost forever. Ether he would be reborn, or forever live in death as his powerless existence continued.

"I still can't believe you forfeited the match, Lulu," muttered Rivalz. "I mean, you were winning! It couldn't have been that hopeless."

"You're right," he admitted. "I could have won, but it would have been a win without victory."

Rivalz considered the money he gambled—and lost—on Lelouch's victory. "I'm not quite sure I get what you're saying."

"Do you remember that news report about the terrorists? We don't know how toxic the poison gas is, so we can't go around it, and I'm honestly not interested in waiting for everything to clear up, so the only way we can get home safely is to get home before they release the gas."

"You know what? I would have been just fine waiting for everything to clear up, but"—

"Rivalz! Go left!"

Rivalz swerved his bike instinctively. "What? But they said that that truck"—

"Is on the road to the right! To avoid it, we go left!"

"But this is K-47! That news lady said"—

"No, she said it was on A-52, I'm sure of it!"

"But, I thought…" Rivalz swallowed hard and looked at the road grimly. "Lulu, I hope you know what you're doing."

They road on grimly for a few moments.

"Uh, Lulu?" Rivalz asked nervously. "Does that truck look familiar to you? Because it does to me."

It was the same truck that they had seen on the news, the same truck they had supposedly been avoiding.

"It seems that you're right," Lelouch said calmly. "I appear to have been mistaken." Something about his blatant, nonchalant admission of defeat reminded Rivalz of his last chess match.

"That's it, Lulu, I'm out of here," he said, swerving toward an exit.

"Rivalz, no!"

Again, Rivalz instinctively obeyed, and again, he cursed himself for doing so. "Look what you've made me do!"

"If we take the exit, we run the risk of running into them again! The only way to be safe it to get in front of them!"

"Then let's turn around!"

"Tell me, Rivalz," he said calmly. "Have you looked behind you recently?"

Behind him he saw an assortment of armored cars and helicopters with unfriendly machine guns. "But that's the Britannian military."

"And they'd shoot us without a second thought."

"But we're Britannian students!"

"That's one possibility," Lelouch replied. "Do you think they'll ask questions before or after our autopsy?"

Rivalz moaned on the inside. "So what are we supposed to do now?"

"Go faster. If we pass the truck, we'll"—

A hook shot out of the back of the vehicle, latching onto a helicopter and pulling it to the ground in a blast of fire. Out stepped a crimson Glasgow which fired upon the other military units.

"Oh crap, we're dead," moaned Rivalz. "We are so dead right now."

"No we're not, Rivalz. Just go faster. Trust me!"

"Trust you?" he repeated. "If it weren't for you, I'd be miles away, waiting for this mayhem to blow over!"

"That could have taken forever. It would have been boring."

"Boring? Is your life so trivial to you?"

Lelouch smiled grimly and looked at his friend. "If you don't take the right risks, you're life can mean very little."

Rivalz looked forward with a whimper. "I hope you're right." _Famous last words._

Zero eyed the approaching ladder on the side of the truck intently. The truck wouldn't crash and let him climb into it like last time, but if he could time it right, it would work just as well. He unbuckled his seatbelt and stood up carefully. When they were on the same level as the ladder, he grabbed the steering wheel and turned it into the truck.

"Lulu, stop! What the heck do you think you're doing?"

"Don't worry about me!" Lelouch shouted, grabbing onto the ladder. "I'll be fine, just get out of here!"

Rivalz looked at him frantically. "Have you gone mad? I know how you like to play the hero, but this is suicide!"

"No, it's not," he replied firmly. _It's taking the right risks._ "Don't die."

The truck swerved into a subway as concrete and darkness separated Lelouch from his old, oblivious friend. He knew all along that he would have to encounter C.C. again, but every way he could think of involved some risk. He could have told Kallen that he knew she was part of a resistance movement, but he couldn't be certain that she wouldn't slit his throat before he could say he wanted to join. He could have revealed his existence to Prince Clovis, but his half-brother would have no reason to tell him about C.C. and would probably just send him to Britannia.

And so he had decided to wait. Wait and hope that his encounter with the immortal witch was fate, a course of action that bore the least threat to his personal safety. But what of Rivalz? Would his fate be to die in the crossfire on his way home? And if he did survive, Lelouch's actions were more than slightly suspicious. Would he talk?

For the hundredth time, Zero told himself that he worried too much about the future, and as he climbed the ladder and dropped into the hatch, he steeled himself for the present.

"_I've been waiting for you."_ Clairvoyant thoughts echoed in his mind with the clarity of a pin drop.

"Waiting for me?" Zero replied coldly. "I've been trying to find you for weeks." But he smiled. There was at least the certainty that within that cold, metal sphere awaited someone familiar. It would have been a cruel joke if the Emperor had known what he was doing and replaced C.C.'s capsule with _real_ toxic gas.

It made sense, though, that if something had happened on the Sword of Akasha that sent Zero into the past, then Suzaku and the Emperor would have suffered the same fate. That the Emperor hadn't intervened on this occasion could mean that Lelouch was wrong in that respect or that the man was biding his time for a greater trap.

He longed dearly to be able to talk to C.C. about this matter. Zero had never encountered anything about time travel, but surely C.C. with her centuries of experience would tell him _something. _No, scratch that. If he asked her, she would probably look wistfully at the sky and change the subject.

Lelouch examined the capsule, trying to find a way to open it. He tried to remember how it had happened last time. _Luck._ The truck had crashed, opened up, and somehow the capsule burst open. Luck had always been fickle with him, and he tried to depend on chance as little as possible. Not once but twice he had managed to steal defeat from the jaws of victory.

The first time, the Black Knights were on the verge of retaking Japan when his sister, Nunnally, was kidnapped. The characteristically honorable Suzaku had succumbed to his thirst for vengence, and for the first and only time, Kallen's faith in him faltered. The second time they were again on the verge of retaking Japan, when Suzaku managed to pull a nuclear weapon out of nowhere, and then right afterwards the Black Knights betrayed him.

In short, luck was not his friend.

Unable to read the instructions of the capsule in the darkness, Lelouch looked around for something he could use for a flashlight.

"Hey, driver!" he called. "Is there some way you can turn the lights on back here?"

The driver shrieked in surprise. "What the—who are—_AAAHHH!"_

The entire vehicle jolted suddenly, throwing Zero into the air and off his feet, and—_wham_—_what had—_screeching, the sound of scraping metal on concrete, throbbing, numbing aches, and—_we're stopping_. Dizzy, Lelouch stood on unsteady legs and stepped out of the truck. It had fallen on its side during the…did it crash?

Lelouch didn't know. He was still underground and could barely see, but he—why hadn't he remembered sooner?—had his cell phone. He activated the flash light function to try to see which wheel to turn to get C.C. out.

Suddenly he heard a noise behind him, and a dazzling kick knocked him to the ground. Zero looked up and saw a single Britannian soldier.

"Stop this!" the soldier ordered. "Give yourself up. I don't want any unnecessary deaths."

Zero looked at the capsule and the soldier who stood between him and his Geass. "Unnecessary deaths?" he repeated incredulously. "You, who serve in Britannia's military talk to _me _ of unnecessary deaths? Your precious empire is _built_ off of unnecessary deaths, and until Britannia is reduced to dust and ash, there will be no _end_ to these _unnecessary deaths!"_

The soldier frowned and took off his helmet. "Lelouch? Is that you? Why have you become a terrorist?"

_Suzaku!_ "You! Suzaku, do you remember the Sword of Akasha? The Ragnarok Connection? The Freya bombing? Tell me!"

Confusion spread over Suzaku's face. Pure, honest confusion, but only for a moment.

"Get down!" he shouted, tackling Lelouch and covering his face with his own gas mask as C.C.'s capsule burst open. Suzaku let the bright, white light spill over him for a few, long seconds before he realized…that he was just fine. Whatever was in that container, it wasn't deadly.

In fact, he thought as the inside of the capsule shown with bright, cold light, _it looked human._

A thin girl bound in black straps all over her clothes fell out of the container. Suzaku and Lelouch got up to untie her. "So, what exactly _are_ you doing here?" Suzaku asked. "I mean, I know how you feel about the empire, but…"

"Don't be ridiculous," Lelouch snapped. "Britannia still needs to be destroyed, but if I wanted to accomplish something, becoming a terrorist would be the last thing I'd do. I just managed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time." _Or maybe just the opposite._

"Then how exactly did you wind up down here?"

"I heard about the terrorists on the news, and my friend and I thought we could avoid it by cutting through the subway system," he lied. "Then we got separated and I ran into that truck, and I thought I'd try to help." _That could actually work._ He made a mental note to tell Rivalz to believe that next time they met.

"I understand," Suzaku said with relief. As part of the Britannian military, he would have no choice but to act against an enemy, but if that enemy were an old friend, well…

"You imbecile!" roared a familiar, unpleasant voice. "A Britannian isn't allowed to touch that thing, and certainly not an Eleven!"

Bright lights blinded him for a moment before he could make out the forms of his unit leader and fellow soldiers. "But I was told it was poison gas!" he explained hurriedly.

"You have no right to question me!" his officer growled, despite the obvious fact that the girl inside the container was neither poisonous nor a gas. Apparently, in the army the sky was whatever color one's superiors wanted it to be, and the subjective reality of military life was something Suzaku still hadn't gotten used to.

"But despite your appalling lack of sense," his leader continued, "you've got guts, so I'll give you a chance to redeem yourself." He handed Suzaku a pistol. "Kururugi, eliminate the terrorist."

"What? But, he's no terrorist," Suzaku explained. "He's just a civilian and wound up here by accident."

"What? How dare you!" There were many words that could describe his commanding officer, but "understanding" wasn't one of them. "Have you or have you not sworn allegiance to Britannia? This is an order!"

_Orders are orders, but I've already made my decision._ "I have sworn allegiance to Britannia, and would gladly give my life for the empire. But I can't give you his life. He's a civilian and an innocent man, and I cannot—I will not—kill him." He turned and smiled at his friend, his voice devoid of fear or passion.

"Then so be it," replied his officer coldly.

Lelouch knew what was happening before it happened, but he still flinched as the gun went off, leaving a bullet in his friend's back. The unit leader looked menacingly at him as Lelouch tried desperately to communicate with C.C., but it wasn't working. He knew she had some telepathic abilities, and she transmitted her powers through touch, so he held her hand tightly, thinking, _Wake up, C.C.! The Geass, give it to me! I'll promise you anything you want, just give me your power!_

Nothing. She gave him a sleepy look, but gave no sign that she heard his thoughts.

"Sorry kid," the officer said with a chuckle. "You look like a Britannian student, so Kururugi was probably right about you, but it looks like you just have really, and I mean really, bad luck."

"I can't die now," he whispered. "My life can't end in this pathetic, helpless state. Do something, you witch! I need you!"

"Are you talking to it?" the soldier asked, pointing a gun at him. "If you knew what that creature was, you'd understand why I have to kill you right now."

Lelouch flinched when he heard the deafening crack of gunfire, and felt hot blood splash against his face. Just as Suzaku had taken a bullet for him, C.C. had too. Zero still gripped her fingers, hoping that whatever it was that was preventing her from making a contract with him would dissipate.

"Pity," said the officer. "I wanted to take her alive, but the terrorists managed to kill the hostage before we could retrieve her." He glanced at a fellow soldier.

"Understood," said his underling. "I will inform our superiors immediately."

"You don't want to kill me," Lelouch said suddenly. Even without his Geass, he still had an ace up his sleeve, one that, if nothing else, he could use to stall. "I'm a personal friend of Prince Clovis."

The soldiers burst out laughing. "Ha! If I had a dollar for every time I heard that from a man about to die, I'd be richer than a duke!"

"It's true," he replied with a calm smile, although he still gripped C.C.'s fingers tightly just in case she felt like doing something. "We used to play chess together, years ago. Go ahead and call him and he could verify it for me." _Crap, they aren't buying this._ "My name is Lelouch vi Britannia, and I—"

_FLASH!_

"_Is your life precious to you?"_ Her words rung with clarity and peace, as only one who has no fear of death could manage. "_Are you so desperate to live? Yes, I perceive you are. So a gift I give to you, my black king, a gift of great power, and of unfathomable loneliness. The power of kings will give you a new life, a different life, and in return, you will grant me my desire. This is our contract. If you accept…"_

"I command you to die!"

Zero's vision cleared as power—blessed, familiar power—burst out of his left eye, and each one of those butchers in front of him, with the same mad giggle and grin, leveled their weapons to their heads and—"Yes, your Highness!"—blew their brains out.

C.C. lay in a pool of her own blood, and anyone else would have assumed her dead, surrounded by the dead, and she would be safe here for the time being. The only living problem that remained was Suzaku.

Lelouch picked up a gun and pointed it at the unconscious figure of his old friend. _You've sought death for a long time, haven't you?_ he thought. _The guilt of killing your father has tormented you to this day._

Zero cocked the gun and tried to keep his hand steady. _I could save a lot of trouble in the future by killing you right now._ He tried to think of all the times Suzaku had gotten in his way, of all the times he had stood against him, hunted him, sold him out, betrayed him, leaving everything he cared about in ruins…but he couldn't.

All Lelouch could think about was how his old friend had risked death to save his life twice in the past five minutes.

"WHY CAN'T I KILL YOU?" he shouted, throwing away the gun. "We've always been enemies before, haven't we?"

But no, they haven't. Since he became Zero, yes, they were enemies. But that hadn't happened yet. This was before the Black Rebellion, before the Massacre Princess, before the Black Knights…_Heroes of justice._ That's what Zero had called them. _Heroes of justice, against all who oppress the weak and powerless._

Right now, Lelouch's first and oldest friend lay fairly weak and powerless before him. Lelouch sighed, picked up a transmitter, and called for help.

WWW

Villeta blasted down a feeble wall with her Sutherland and fired into a crowd of screaming Elevens. When she had joined the elite pilot knightmare corps, she thought her days of cleaning up trash were over. She hoped for a chance to prove her courage and her strength, but so far, the greatest threat was that the Elevens might bleed on her Sutherland enough to make it rust.

"Emergency! Can you hear me, this is an emergency!" her transmitter crackled through the static.

"This is K-7," she answered. "What's the situation?"

"We met some resistance in the old subway system," the voice explained. She heard gunfire. "We have them pinned down, but we won't hold out much longer! We request immediate assistance."

A few men with guns weren't really much of a challenge, not for someone with a knightmare frame, but it was better than wading through filth up here. "I'm on my way."

WWW

Zero waited until a suitable knightmare frame showed up. It was a large, violet weapon.

"What the—what happened here?" the pilot demanded.

Feigning injury in a soldier's uniform he had donned, he clutched his side as though concealing a wound and replied, "The enemy got away through a side tunnel. I can take you there, but we've obtained an enemy information disk that I'd like you to hold so it doesn't get damaged."

Villeta got out of her knightmare in the trusting, gullible way that Zero thought shouldn't be allowed in the military. He laughed, took off his helmet, and activated his Geass.

"Behind me is a girl with long green hair. Hide her somewhere where she won't be found," he ordered. "Also, there is a young man here who was injured, but he's still alive. Tend to his wounds until medical help arrives. And, as you won't be needing it, I would very much like your Sutherland."

She handed him her key, observing his demands with the exact obedience that only the Geass can compel. Zero laughed as he climbed into her knightmare, but when he looked at the outdated, archaic controls, he stopped.

"What kind of joke is this? This piece of junk can't even fly!"

WWW

Kallen shot her Slash Harkens at an enemy copter, knocking it to the ground. The Britannians were massacring her people, and out of everyone in Shinjuku, she was the only one with the weaponry capable of providing any resistance. Against even an outdated knightmare, Britannian helicopters and tanks wouldn't stand a chance. Against other knightmares, however…

Two enemy Sutherlands appeared behind her. "Hey, it's that Glasgow!" one said. "We've been looking for you."

_Crap!_ Her Glasgow already lost an arm, and those two Sutherlands were in mint condition. If she had the same model at them, it would be different, but as it was…

She ran. Maybe she could lose them if—"Go west."

"Huh? Who is this?" The voice was using her resistance unit's frequency, but he didn't sound like anyone in her unit that she knew.

"Who I am doesn't matter," he replied. "If you want to win, then trust me."

His voice seemed so calm and clear in her world of smoke and fire. She didn't think that anyone could pull a win out of a hopeless situation like this. An escape, maybe, but a win? Impossible. It was so absurd it was actually tempting.

This stranger wanted her to trust him? Well, she couldn't. But she was desperate, and that was close enough.

WWW

Q-1 made her way to the western exit. She always showed the greatest loyalty of the Black Knights, and she was the greatest pilot he knew. From where he stood, Zero could see her old Glasgow approaching a freight shipment of Sutherlands.

"When you reach the train, jump on top of it," he ordered. She followed through with unquestioning obedience. Whatever caused her to be so trusting, he never really understood. He shrugged. Maybe she was just too naïve to think that he would sacrifice her for his own ambitions.

The train slowed down the pursuing Sutherlands enough for Zero to get a decent hit. He fired his Slash Harkens at the first before they even knew what hit them, and when the other Sutherland found himself outnumbered, he evacuated.

"Wow, that worked!" Q-1 exclaimed. "But who are you, anyway? And how'd you get a Sutherland?"

"As I told you before, who I am doesn't matter," he replied. "And as for my knightmare, Sutherlands aren't difficult to obtain, if you know where to look. But I must thank you for your trust. As a show of gratitude, tell your friends that they can help themselves to whatever they find in the train. I'll give you further orders in fifteen minutes."

WWW

Zero leaned back as he considered his counter-attack. Even minor Britanian nobles were more arrogant than intelligent, and Prince Clovis wasn't just nobility, he was _royalty._ He had the strategic capacity of a dead fish, and firmly believed, despite all reason and logic, that he was invincible. That made it—

His cell phone started ringing. Rivalz. _Oh yeah._

"Hey, Rivalz," he said. "Are you alright?"

"_Alright?!"_ he shrieked. "You go off and hijack a bunch of terrorists, and you ask _me_ if _I'm_ alright? I was worried sick about you! Have you gone nuts? Have you lost your mind? Did you ever think what it would have been like for _me_ if I had to tell the whole student council how you got yourself killed in a spontaneous burst of idiocy?"

_Please stop ranting. I have a victory to plan._ "Rivalz…"

"What were you _thinking?_ 'Hey, look! There's some mortal peril over there! Let's get _closer!'"_ he said sarcastically. "You're usually pretty smart, man, but that's just _stupid!_ I mean, you're a chess player, not some secret agent of the empire!" He paused. "Are you?"

"A what? Rivalz, I honestly think that's the most ridiculous thing you've ever said."

"Uh, Lulu, this isn't one of those, 'I'd tell you but then I'd have to kill you' things, is it?" he asked suspiciously.

"If I said yes, would you tell the whole school about it by tomorrow?"

"…I might not."

"Rivalz, listen to me," Lelouch said firmly. "You are blowing things way out of proportion. I'm fine. Ask me tomorrow, and I'll be able to explain everything to you, I promise. And I'd appreciate it if you would please not mention this to anyone at school until you know all the details. You know how rumors fly around, and apparently I already have a harem of Eleven girls to run while running the largest trafficking of refrain in the country, and I'm not sure I could handle being an imperial agent as well."

"Alright," Rivalz conceded after a moment's hesitation. "But you had better give me a pretty darn good explanation tomorrow morning."

"I will," Zero said. _I'll give you an explanation you won't be able to disbelieve._

After hanging up, he turned to the first predecessors of the Black Knights. The Britanians still had Kallen's Glasgow on radar, but they had no idea the terrorists had obtained Sutherlands. None of his Sutherlands had their transponders online, so unless they moved exactly as ordered, his army would fall to chaos.

"P-1, 4, and 7, are you in position?"

"Yeah, we're here," said the leader of the pawn formation.

"Good. Q-1 should be arriving shortly, followed by two enemy Sutherlands. Eliminate them."

A few seconds later, to blue dots on the radar disappeared. Four more Sutherlands approached from the west. The path they were taking provided fairly good cover, except at one spot.

"N formation, go three hundred meters north, and prepare to fire at ten o' clock." He couldn't see his own pieces move, but he could see the enemy's pieces fall. Prince Clovis continued sending a few knightmares at a time, hoping that his numerical advantage would somehow make up for his unfavorable position and abhorrent lack of skill, until, eventually he panicked, and sent in everything.

"Clovis, my old friend, you never did have a knack for subtlety," he whispered. "If I recall, when we played chess I would start out with a few pieces missing to make it more even, while you were forever tripping over your superior numbers." And apparently, after all these years, his methods haven't improved.

"All units, fall back to the central location and get underground and spread out as planned. Q-1, get underground too, but wait until they're on top of you."

When the enemy Sutherlands arrived, they looked around and saw nothing. Then the ground disappeared beneath them. Zero looked at his radar as every individual Britanian knightmare was systematically eliminated, and he laughed. To anyone else, his laughter would have been called maniacal; to him, it was mostly nostalgic.

"Ah, this brings back memories of my _first_ battle of Shinjuku." Now, how had this event ended? Oh yes. _Lancelot._

Zero considered what to do when his least favorite knight in shining armor appeared on the scene. Suzaku would be facing superior numbers, but he was an exceptional pilot, and the Lancelot was superior to any number of Sutherlands. If Kallen had her Guren Mk-II, if the Four Holy Swordsmen were with him, if Zero was supported by a disciplined army instead of a rabble of terrorists, then it would be different. But as it was, it would probably be best to retreat.

_Next time I go back in time,_ he thought, _"I'll bring the Guren S.E.I.T.E.N. back with me."_

"Good work," he said to his units. "Now, I would like to invite all of you to leave."

His order was met by a series of protests, too instantaneous to be understood, forcing him to reluctantly clarify.

"The Britanian military has an experimental knightmare frame, which I expect them to release shortly," he explained. "If you see a white and gold knightmare moving incredibly fast, feel free to engage it, but it won't do you any good." Zero cut off another stream of protests by simply turning off his transmitter.

He wasn't worried about them. Suzaku valued life too much to do anything more than destroy an enemy's knightmare. His red queen was too skilled to be accidently killed by the white knight anyway, and the remainder of the terrorists were already expendable, and besides, the best way Zero could help them was to have a little chat with his dear half-brother.

Lelouch checked his radar. Prince Clovis's command headquarters was directly northwest of him, but that was also probably from where the Lancelot would emerge. _So if I circle around and approach from behind…_Zero also had the advantage of a knightmare. Last time, he had to eject beforehand and reach Clovis on foot, and that took forever. This time, it would be over that much sooner.

WWW

Kallen stared blankly at her transmitter. "Leave?" she asked incredulously. "We can't leave now! We just took out, like, twenty Sutherlands in one hit!"

No response.

"Uh, hello?" she asked. "Mr. Mysterious Voice Man? Are you still there?"

Nothing.

"He must have turned off his transmitter," said another resistance member. "I guess he decided—AAAHHH!"

"What happened?"

"I-I don't believe it!" said another member. "That guy took out four Sutherlands in one go!"

"He did what? Who?"

"Some white-head knightmare frame. I've never see—AAAHHH!"

_White?_ "Do you think that it's the same one that…"

"Maybe," said another. "The voice said—"

"That voice isn't here anymore!" Kallen snapped. She didn't know who the guy was who was directing the attack earlier, and she certainly didn't know this white knightmare that he refused to even confront, _but I know who I am! And I'm not going to run away without a fight!_

"No one is invincible!" she proclaimed. "If this guy can be killed, then I'm going to do it, no matter what!"

She turned around her Glasgow and found the Britanian knightmare quickly. It was a model she had never seen, faster and stronger than anything she'd ever faced. With her outdated Glasglow, Sutherlands were pretty tough, and this guy was taking out Sutherlands like _butter!_

Kallen jumped down and fired her Slash Harkens, but the knightmare just caught it. "Bad move," she grinned, and retracted the cord, pulling him into range for her to…

Miss.

The white knightmare jumped over her, firing his Slash Harkens into another Sutherland and yanked him back, trying to smash the two of them together. Kallen managed to roll into a jump at the last second and fell into the rubble. The knightmare took out his sword to finish her off when…

"All units, pull back immediately!" The voice echoed on every radio frequency in the area. "This is Clovis de Britannia, steward of Area 11. I order all units to withdraw! There is no need for further destruction of this land. Cease fire, and tend to all who are injured, be they Britanians or Elevens. I repeat, this is an order."

The white nightmare looked down at her with what she would have called, if she hadn't known that it was impossible, a confused expression in its eyes before he obediently turned around and left.

WWW

Clovis turned off the loud speaker and leaned back in his throne, rather vexed at having a gun pointed at him. "Well, I did it," he said. "So are you done, or is there something else you wanted me to do? I could sing a song, if you like, or maybe I could interest you in a game of chess."

"Actually, I was under the impression that we just got done playing a game of chess," Lelouch replied, taking off his helmet. "As usual, I started out with a material handicap, but despite your numerical advantage, you left yourself wide open."

Clovis blinked in recognition. "What—but—Lelouch? You're alive! You have no idea how happy I am to see you!" His enthusiasm would have been more convincing if he weren't so frightened. But even in their childhood, Lelouch had been terrifyingly intelligent and ruthless (in chess, at least), and after his mother's death, he had grown bitter, and when he left Britania, well…

It wasn't exactly on the best of terms.

"You're happy to see me?" Lelouch asked. "I doubt that. You're not exactly the kind of person who would be happy to die."

Clovis's face paled. "What? But—please, Lelouch! We grew up together! It doesn't have to end this way! I'm your brother!" he cried desperately. Lelouch's face remained impassive. "Why?"

Zero looked at the first man he had ever killed with his own hands. If Clovis died, he would just be replaced by someone more competent, but if the Emperor was from the future, Zero couldn't risk letting his father know that he was too. Also, if he strayed from his actions in the past, his knowledge of the future would no longer be reliable. In short, Clovis had to die because he had before.

"Sorry, brother," he said before pulling the trigger. "Force of habit."

WWW

a/n You know, the two things I hate most in fanfiction are when they spend half the time going relating the canon verbatim and long, detailed, tedious fight scenes, and then I ended up doing both. Oh well. I didn't see any point for him to drastically change things his first battle because, really, why change perfection? I mean, Zero had zero casualties the first time (no pun intended) until Lancelot showed up. And as I mentioned before, he will know the future until he changes it, so as a weapon, his foreknowledge can only be used dramatically once. Of course, if he doesn't use it at all, it serves no purpose. But anyway, I just want to thank everyone for their support and encouragement—reviews are awesome. To be honest, I'm kind of surprised that you people seemed to like this as much as you did.


	3. Chapter 3

Your Past, My Future

Chapter Three

a/n I do not own Code Geass, at least no more than I did last chapter.

Lelouch woke up for the first time in a long time—certainly since he found himself in the past—at ease. He hadn't been so much at peace since C.C. restored his memory and he found out that his sister was taken from him.

But now Nunnally was back with him, and, almost as importantly, his Geass was back with him. And as long as he had the Geass, everything else was under his control. Now he could continue with his plans and free Japan, crush Britannia, and kill his worthless father who abandoned him.

He had gotten so close to victory before—so cruelly, painfully close—and this time, he had exactly the advantage to push him over the edge. He knew the future.

And according to that future, the first thing he did after obtaining the Geass was create what would become the Order of the Black Knights.

WWW

Her phone was ringing. "Make it stop," Kallen groaned, burying her head under her pillow. Kallen was not a morning person. She was really, really not a morning person.

Her phone kept of ringing. If she answered it, it would stop ringing, but then she'd have to talk to whoever was calling, and eventually get up and tell her step-mom that someone wanted to speak with her.

It rang again. Kallen growled, picked up the phone and answered it. "This had better be good."

"I'm glad you're still alive, Q-1."

Kallen took in a sharp intake of breath. Only one person had ever called her that. "You!" she said. "You're that voice from yesterday! Who are you? And how do you even know where I live?"

"I make it a habit to know impossible things, Kouzuki," he replied with a—was he _laughing _at her? "The day after tomorrow, be at the observation deck of Tokyo tower at four o' clock."

"Alright, alright, but who are you? And how'd you make the enemy withdraw?"

Nothing.

"Hello? Are you still there?"

Nothing.

Kallen slammed the phone onto the receiver and swore loudly. She was certain that guy hadn't seen more of her than her knightmare, but somehow he knew where she lived, what her phone number was, and even her real name. _And_ he knew exactly what to do to turn a massacre into a victory the day before.

_I make it a habit to know impossible things._

Cocky genius.

WWW

Satisfied with his conversation, Zero left the phone booth and went to school. Originally he had contacted Kallen first because she was closest to him. He hadn't known that she would become his fiercest supporter or that she had the aptitude as a pilot that rivaled that of the Knights of the Rounds. Back then, she had just been a girl he'd seen at school.

With that done, he had a meeting with the student council to take care of.

"Lulu! I can't believe it! You're alive!" Shirley shrieked, as though on the verge of tears.

"I suppose I am," Lelouch admitted. "Is there a reason why I shouldn't be?"

"Well, when you didn't come back to school yesterday, I tried to call you, but I didn't get anything, so I called Rivalz, and _he _said something about you being held hostage by terrorists."

"What a peculiar thing to say," Lelouch said calmly. "Nothing at all like that happened. To be honest, it seems like some sort of bad joke."

"But Lulu, it didn't sound like a joke when he told me. What really happened to you two?"

"You know, I'll have to tell you some time," he said, noticing Rivalz down the hallway. "But right now, I need to have a word with someone. Hey, Rivalz!"

His friend looked at him expectantly. "Lelouch. Is there something you want to tell me?"

"Yeah. Come with me," he said, leading Rivalz into another room.

"So, what exactly happened yesterday?" Rivalz asked. "You deliberately made me go as close to that truck as possible, and then you jumped inside for no reason at all! I mean, if it's something you don't want me to tell people, okay, but _I_ want to know."

"Alright," he said. "I'll tell you. Yesterday, we were cutting through Shinjuku and, in an attempt to avoid danger, we took a shortcut through the subway system. I fell off your bike and we got separated. Anything else you may have told anyone about what happened yesterday was joke and a bad joke, and you will admit it."

"Yes, your Highness!" Rivalz replied.

Zero deactivated the Geass. "Three words I never thought I'd hear you say to me."

WWW

Kallen wasn't a morning person, but she already knew that. What she didn't know, was that she had no patience whatsoever. The two days before her meeting with whoever it was that supplied that incredible victory in Shinjuku seemed to drag on indefinitely.

And that was only after the first few hours.

After what had happened in the ghetto, Ohgi decided that everyone should lay low for a while for things to blow over, and that meant, for Kallen, going back to school. She suspected that Ohgi's desire for her to go to school had something to do with the fact that he couldn't, but she didn't say anything. Not out loud, at least.

Kallen wasn't the least surprised when at Ashford, everyone was talking about a pro-Britannian, heavily censored version of the Shinjuku incident.

"Yeah, some Elevens tried to blow up some toxic gas bomb, and got blown to bits!" said a classmate with a laptop.

"Hey, go to the part where you can see their bodies!" suggested another as a girl screamed.

_This is why I hate Britanians,_ Kallen thought.

"Kallen?" said a voice behind her. "Is that you?"

It was that Ashford girl, Milly Ashford, president of the student council. "Oh, hello," she said meekly.

"Kallen! I haven't seen you in forever!" Milly spoke as though they were old friends, despite the fact that they had barely ever talked to each other. _Well, if it's not false and superficial, it's not be Britannian._

"Oh, yeah," she said weakly, as though she was made of foam. "I've been really sick recently. I really shouldn't have come today, but I was far enough behind as it is."

Milly nodded understandingly. She did a convincingly good job of it too, considering how much she probably cared. "You seem to be sick a lot."

"I know," Kallen replied. "It's really lousy, but I get through it."

"Say, Kallen, you're not part of any school club, are you?"

Kallen blinked in surprise. "Well, no. I can't really do any physical activity, and I'm not here consistently either, so I never found a club that fits."

"Well, that's great," Milly said with a beaming smile. "Because was thinking about it, and I've thought of a club that's perfect for you. How would you like to be a part of the student council?"

She said it like she was offering Kallen the chance of a lifetime. She thought of what she knew about the student council. _Preppy gossip-hole—Don't do it, Kallen!_ "Um, well…"

"There's no need to be shy about it, Kallen. We'd love to have you, and you'll have a great time! So say you will."

"Uh…"

"Perfect! We'll all meet at the council clubhouse tomorrow after school. See you later!"

Milly left Kallen standing alone. _What did I just get myself into?_

WWW

"Ohgi! Where have you been? I've been trying to call you all day yesterday!"

It was the day after Kallen received the phone call, and hadn't been able to contact the leader of her resistance unit since.

"Sorry, Kallen," he said. "We've all been trying to lay low ever since the Shinjuku incident."

"Yeah, about that. Do you have any idea who that voice was from the other day?"

"No," he said. "But don't worry about it. We can't find him from just his voice, you know."

"No, you're right," she agreed. "But he called me yesterday. He told me to meet with him tomorrow."

A pause. "He did?"

"Yes. It was weird. He knew my home phone number and even my real name. He said he makes it a habit to know impossible things."

"Interesting. Be careful, Kallen. The more I know about this guy, the less I trust him."

"What do you mean?"

"Don't you think it's odd that out of all of us, he contacted you?" Ohgi asked. "We're all hiding in the ghetto, but you're out in the open in the middle of the settlement. If anything happens to you, well, the rest of us probably won't even hear about it until after it's too late."

"That guy did help us in Shinjuku," Kallen noted.

"I know," said Ohgi. "And he knew things than no one besides a Britannian could know, like their battle tactics and experimental technology. _And_ he somehow managed to make Prince Clovis act like a decent human being for once in his life, and he couldn't have done that without some major connections."

"Ohgi," Kallen started.

"Look, Kallen. All I'm saying is that you should be careful when you meet this guy."

"Of course I'll be careful," Kallen replied, slightly offended. "I'll be just as careful as I always am when facing a possible enemy."

"I know," Ohgi said before hanging up. "That's what I'm worried about."

"I resent that," she said aloud, mostly to herself.

"Resent what?" said a voice behind her.

She spun around. _Lelouch!_ "How long have you been standing there?"

"I just got here," he responded. It was true. Zero knew better than to clumsily eavesdrop on someone like Kallen. Most people would consider it discourteous, but Kallen could get paranoid and do unpleasant things with her knife.

Lelouch continued. "I just came by to see if you remembered about your first meeting as part of the student council."

_Of course I remember! I'm pretending to be sick, not stupid!_ "Oh, thank you," she said politely.

"The meeting is about to start," he said. "Do you want me to take you to the club house?"

_I can find it on my own._ "Thank you," she said again. "I'd like that."

The "club house," as it was called, wasn't a small, secluded structure where a few intimate friends could get together every now and then, but rather a ridiculous mansion made for parties and formal dinners, equipped with its own ballroom, kitchen, and some hundred other rooms that have probably never been needed. In short, it was the sort of ponderous waste of money that only a Britannian could justify—or rather it was the sort of ponderous waste of money that only a Britannian could build without being able _to_ justify.

"Ah, Kallen!" called Milly, pushing a cart full of gourmet food. "There you are!"

Kallen looked at all the plates of food that the other council members were putting on tables. "What is this?"

"Oh, this is our way of welcoming you to the student council," she said cheerfully.

"So, you have a party every time someone new joins?"

"Make the most of it," Lelouch suggested. "This is the last party around here with an actual point to it that you'll see for a long time."

Milly resisted the urge to roll her eyes to that comment before continuing. "I'm Milly, as you already know. I'm the president of the student council, so if you're wondering, then yes, I _am_ the most important person here."

"I'm Rivalz," said another member with enthusiasm. "I'm the treasurer, so if you need anything at all, just ask. Someone else."

"I'm Shirley," said a girl with long, orange hair. "I'm also on the swim team."

"I'm Nina," said the last girl, looking down at her feet.

"It's nice to meet all of you," Kallen said, forcing a smile. It seemed like an appropriate thing to say.

A small girl with a motorized wheelchair rolled into the room carrying a tray of sweets. "Excuse me, Shirley?" she said without opening her eyes. "Could you put these on the table for me?"

"Oh, sure," Shirley replied, helpfully.

The girl sat in a dignified manner, almost regally in her chair, and she still hadn't opened her eyes, but she remained alert, facing the people with whom she was speaking.

"That's Nunnally," Milly supplied, noticing the confused expression on Kallen's face. "She's Lelouch's little sister."

"Oh," Kallen replied.

"I'm only in my second year," Nunnally explained, "so I'm not an actual member of the council."

"Who cares?" asked Rivalz. "You can go to parties and look nice, and that's pretty much all we have to do. And speaking of parties…" He pulled a bottle of champagne out of nowhere. "…why don't we start this one off with a toast?"

"Rivalz!" Shirley scolded. "You can't do that!"

"Why not?"

"First of all, it's illegal. Second of all, if someone finds out we could get expelled. Third of all—Rivalz, are you tuning me out?"

"Is there any reason why I shouldn't?" he asked, trying to pull off the cork.

"Give me that, you scamp!"

"Hey, no way, lady, get off of me! Lelouch, catch!" He tossed the bottle to his friend.

"You know," he said. "The last time I tried something like this, it ended up in a big mess." Right before Shirley reached him, he turned to Kallen. "Think fast!"

Kallen caught the bottle, stunned. Lelouch didn't just throw it _to _her, he threw it _at_ her, even though she had been pretending to be sick for over a year. _He knew I'd catch it! Somehow, he—_

The cork finally came off, shooting out a spray of foam. Kallen dropped the bottle and jumped back in shock, and when the bottle shattered on the floor, she jumped back again.

She started to apologize, but the council members just laughed, as though the cost and trouble of the champagne bottle was worth the fun they had breaking it. When things had settled down, they had their party.

"So, Kallen," said Rivalz. "You seem to be sick a lot. You're not contagious or anything, are you?"

"No," she replied. "It's more genetic than anything else."

"Like a family thing?" asked Lelouch.

Kallen thought of her brother. "You could say that."

"Well, if you ever need any medicine, you know who to talk to," said Rivalz, grinning at Lelouch.

Kallen blinked. "I do?"

Lelouch laughed easily. "The best thing about staying home sick have the time is that you can't keep up with all the silly rumors we have here. But for future reference, don't let people see you in the ghetto. They invent the most preposterous reasons for you to be there."

"Well, that's okay, because I never go there," Kallen said. _Not as Kallen _Stadtfeld,_ anyway. _"What kind of reasons do they come up with?"

"That you've been captured by terrorists," supplied Shirley, punching Rivalz in the shoulder.

"Ow!" he yelled. "Are you going to hit me every time someone brings that up?"

"Yes!" she said, hitting him again.

Rivalz sighed. "Some people just can't take a joke."

"It was a terrible joke!"

"Huh?" asked Kallen.

"Like I said," Lelouch replied. "Silly rumors."

"And you don't mind having people tell lies about you?"

"Why would I?" he asked. "I'd rather them tell lies about me than the truth."

_What?_ There was something strange about this guy, like how they had barely spoken before, but now he was talking to her like they were old friends.

Suddenly Milly hung up her phone and got up.

"What is it?" asked Rivalz.

"My friend called," Milly replied. "She said something was on the news. She said someone just killed Prince Clovis!"

_No way!_ "That's terrible!" Kallen lied.

"I know!" Milly said, turning on the television.

On the news some Britannian official was giving some spiel about how great the late prince was. He carefully left out all the parts about his bloodbaths and corruption. It wasn't until they arrested a suspect that it got interesting.

"…an honorary Britannian citizen," related the news reporter. "Private First Class Suzaku Kururugi, a former Eleven and a Britannian soldier."

_Typical,_ thought Kallen. Britannia didn't want to admit that they couldn't find the killer, so they decided whom they liked least—Japanese, unsurprisingly—and grabbed a scapegoat.

But…_connections with Britannia._ In the military, this Suzaku guy would have connections with Britannia, and he would know about their technology. _That voice from Shinjuku…_

_Was it you?_

WWW

"I didn't do it."

It felt like the hundredth time Suzaku said that, and it wasn't having much more effect on his accusers than the first time.

"Don't lie to me, Eleven," spat his questioner, Jeremiah. "We have the gun that shot the prince. It has your fingerprints on it."

"That's not true! I've never seen that gun before in my life!" Suzaku couldn't exactly be sure of that. All guns looked the same, but it seemed like a good thing to say at the time.

"So now you're calling me a liar," Jeremiah sneered. He punched Suzaku in the face. "You are the son of the last Japanese Prime Minister! You wanted revenge on us for conquering your desolate rock, so you went and shot Prince Clovis, didn't you!"

"I…didn't…do it!" That must have been the one hundred and first time he said that. It didn't help any more than the last hundred times.

WWW

"But, Suzaku," whispered Nunnally that night. "He didn't kill Clovis, did he?"

"Don't be ridiculous," Lelouch said, putting his little sister to bed. "Suzaku would do anything like that. It goes against his honor code. He'd probably say something like 'a victory through dishonest means is meaningless,' or something like that."

"But they arrested him," she cried. "They could execute him!"

Lelouch paused. "He means a lot to you, doesn't he?"

"He's our friend! If something happens to him, I…don't think I could…"

"Would you like to see him again?" Lelouch asked. "Just one more time?"

Suzaku was a traitor and an idealistic fool. The first time around, he had gotten in Zero's way at every possible opportunity, but Nunnally wished him to live.

And Lelouch couldn't bear to see her cry.

WWW

Suzaku was bound, muted, spat upon, cursed, paraded through an angry crowd, and, in all likelihood, would be executed in a few days. But he could take that. As he was carried through the masses, he drank up their hatred into himself like some precious poison. Because he deserved it. Not for the murder of Prince Clovis, but he deserved it. After all the things he'd done in his life, it didn't matter which one he was punished for.

"Everyone!" called out Jeremiah. "Stop!"

Suzaku's platform jerked to a halt, and in the distance he could see a car coming down the road. A very familiar car.

"That's Prince Clovis's car!" someone called out.

"This is an insult to both his majesty the Prince and all those who served him!" roared Jeremiah. "Come out this instant!"

Without warning, the curtain on the top of the carriage burst into flame, revealing a man standing on the top. Suzaku looked at the man's black mask, his flowing black cape, and at the dozen knightmares surrounding him. _This guy is insane!_

"I am Zero!" the madman proclaimed.

Jeremiah looked down, unimpressed. Four more knightmares fell from the sky, surrounding this Zero and the Prince's car. "Now," said Jeremiah. "Take off your mask, you fool. I wouldn't want my knightmares to obliterate you beyond recognition before we can identify you."

The man moved his hand to his mask, but instead of removing it, removed the back covering of the carriage, revealing the same poison gas capsule that Suzaku had seen before in Shinjuku.

_But that capsule wasn't full of poison gas. _"That's—AH!" Suzaku's collar jolted to life, stinging him into silence.

Jeremiah leveled a gun at Zero, but hesitated. "What do you want?"

"A trade," Zero replied. "If you give me Suzaku, I'll give you this device."

Jeremiah looked at the helpless crowd, and then at Suzaku. "No. This man has betrayed Britannia and murdered his Highness the Prince. I will not release him."

Zero, despite the knightmares and enemies surrounding him, laughed. "You are indeed a fool, Jeremiah. You sought so much to frame this man for your political ambitions that you have deceived even yourself. Suzaku Kururugi did not kill your precious prince. I did!"

_This guy is crazy! _Suzaku thought. _He interrupted a public ceremony in a stolen, royal vehicle, insulted the most powerful man in sight, and _now_ he confessed to murder!_

"The choice is yours, Jeremiah," Zero continued. "Would you sacrifice hundreds of Britannians so you can execute one Eleven? Or will you let an innocent man go free?"

"You lie!" Jeremiah snarled. "I have no reason to believe a man who would steal his majesty's own carriage." He turned to his men. "Open fire!"

"I wouldn't do that if I were you, _Orange_," Zero replied. "If you kill me, that would be a very big mistake. Release him! Release all of us!"

Incredibly, unbelievably, inexplicably, Jeremiah yielded. "Alright," he said. He turned to his men. "Release him, and let them go."

_What?_ The guards removed his bonds and let him walk away. When he reached Zero, he had a multitude of questions to ask him, most of which were on the lines of, "Who are you?" and "How'd you do that?" and "Are you completely insane?" His collar, unfortunately, prevented him from speaking at all.

"We meet again, Suzaku," Zero said mysteriously. "I'd like to talk to you, but now is not the time. Get ready to run." He pushed a button, opening the capsule, flooding the entire street with poisonous gas.

_Not poisonous gas!_ Suzaku realized. _Smokescreen!_

Suzaku, Zero, and Zero's driver all ran for the edge of the bridge. When one of the knightmares tried to stop them, Jeremiah himself intervened.

"I told you to let them go!" he shouted. "If you interfere, that is a violation of a direct order!"

Somehow, all of them managed to get out alive, and when everything was done, Suzaku still had no idea what had happened. They landed in a net and escaped underground, and afterwards, Zero led Suzaku to a secluded area where they could talk.

"Britannia is not worthy of your talents, Suzaku," Zero said. "You offered them your service and your honor, and they used you to cover up their lies. I seek to change this world, and destroy the injustice that infects this land. I would ask you to join me, but something tells me that you'd decline."

"Tell me," Suzaku said. "Did you kill Prince Clovis?"

"Did you?"

"No."

"And now the Britannians have a more elusive scapegoat to pursue."

"You threatened a crowd of civilians with toxic gas," Suzaku accused.

"It's called bluffing. It seemed more altruistic than a blood bath."

"Is that how you work?" Suzaku asked. "Then you're right. I do not accept your offer. Any world you create with a foundation of lies isn't worth living in."

Zero laughed. "I thought you'd say that."

"Then why did you rescue me?"

"Tell me, Suzaku," Zero said. "What is it that you wish to achieve by aiding Britannia?"

"It's true what you said, Zero. Britannia isn't worthy, but I want to change it, to make it worthy. And I'll do it from the inside, without destroying it, and I'll do it honestly. I want to change the world like you do, but I'll do it my own way."

"And how will you do that if you're dead? You are reckless with your life, but you are a good person, and a man with your ideals has no right to die. Do you think Britannia will listen to the dreams of a dead man? They would not so much as let you polish their boots if they had no need for you. I rescued you to tell you that I will create that need."

"You seek to change Britannia?" Zero continued. "Then I will help you. I will become the most terrible enemy Britannia has ever known, and you will become their greatest hero, and the only one capable of defeating me. If you do, then you will be able to change Britannia and redeem a corrupt empire. If I win, I will destroy Britannia and free this land from its injustice."

"Our methods differ, Suzaku, but our ambitions are the same. If either of us win, the objectives of both are fulfilled. So tell me, do you accept my offer?"

WWW

Lelouch couldn't justify saving Suzaku with the same logic that he used to kill Clovis. If the Emperor was from the future the same way Lelouch was—which was becoming less and less likely considering how Suzaku apparently wasn't and considering the Emperor's not unusual behavior—then he would have known from the first time about important events like the assassination of his son, but probably not the execution of an Eleven. The Emperor was always too busy researching old shrines to worry about anything involving running a country.

And yet, Lelouch went off and saved Suzaku anyway. Why did he prevent his greatest enemy from suffering a certain death? "Because my sister wanted me too," seemed like a lousy excuse, even to him. And yet, this wasn't the Suzaku who tricked him, betrayed him, and hunted him; this Suzaku was, for the time being, innocent.

"If I go through this timeline making the same mistakes I did last time and just whine more than I did originally," he said aloud, "I'm going to kill myself."

Lelouch went home that night and found C.C. waiting for him with his sister, folding origami cranes.

"Onii-sama," Nunnally called. "You're friend came by. She said her name is C.C. I've never met anyone who goes only by initials."

C.C. looked at him with a bored expression on her face. Zero got used to that eventually, but in the beginning, it just irritated him.

"Hello, C.C." he said. "I was wondering when you'd stop by."

"Is C.C. your girlfriend or something?" asked Nunnally.

"We're promised to each other," she supplied bluntly.

"You're getting _married?"_ Nunnally asked. "Don't you think this is a little sudden?"

"Uh, I'm going to need to have a word with her," Lelouch said, dragging C.C. to another room. "And about what she said about us being promised, we're not really getting married. C.C. just has a death wish."

"So tell me, Lelouch," C.C. said afterwards. "Do you like the power I gave you?"

"Yes, actually," Zero replied. "Very much so. I don't know what I'd do without it."

"Are you so used to it already?" C.C. asked. "Odd. You didn't seem like the kind of man so easily satisfied."

"I'm not, but the Geass is essential to my ambition. And while we're asking questions, tell me, does the Sword of Akasha mean anything to you?"

C.C. laid down on his bed and looked at the ceiling. "I don't like swords. You didn't seem surprised to see me. Have we done this before?"

"Yes. Yes we have. You see—"

"Good," she said, pulling the covers over her. "In that case, I don't have to explain myself. Boys sleep—"

"On the floor, I know."

WWW

Lelouch had gotten used to the C.C. from the future. Back then, C.C. had been so helpful and corporative that he had forgotten how she was originally. In the beginning, she was the most annoying person he had ever met. Schneizel was a close second, but C.C. was intolerable. Zero tried to remember when exactly she had changed, but it was too gradual to be sure.

Meanwhile, Suzaku had been freed from charge due to lack of evidence. Why he had been accused in the first place, or what had happened to the gun with his fingerprints on it or to the several eye witnesses who had sworn to have seen him do it, the government had refused to comment on.

Suzaku had suddenly achieved a sort of celebrity status, whose fame was only eclipsed by Zero himself. Looking at his laptop, Lelouch could see reports of a sudden spike in terrorist activity as resistance units were emboldened by how a single, unarmed lunatic stood against a Britannian noble and several knightmares, _and got away with it._ Britannia, on the other hand, considered his very existence an insult to their pride and empire.

But that was only the beginning. Right now, Lelouch had the Geass, he had the primordial origins of the Order of the Black Knights, he had _Zero._

And he had the initiative.

For too many years, Britannia had ruled the world through fear. Now, all Zero would have to do was rise up, perfect the hundred resistance units into a unified force that would the Empire would learn to fear, defeat injustice, purge Britannia from the world, and kill the Emperor himself.

That was it.

_Piece of cake._

And if Suzaku decided to get in his way as he did last time, well, Suzaku saved his life in Shinjuku, but that was only worth so much.

"Hey, Lelouch," said Kallen casually, passing by.

"Hey, Kallen," he replied in the same tone.

Kallen continued for a few steps and stopped. "Could I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"I noticed that everyone else here calls them Elevens, but you call them Japanese," she said. "Why is that?"

Lelouch closed his laptop and leaned back in the bench he was sitting on. The truth was that he had lived in Japan before it became Area 11, and he had never accepted Britannia's conquest, Japan's surrender, or the Empire's right to rename the country or its people. But truth, he found, had never served him well.

"There is a Japanese maid in my house," he explained. "Under other circumstance, she could have made a living as a professional assassin. I figure that having her do the dishes for me is pushing my luck enough as it is. And besides, I find that calling them that tends to offend people."

"So, you call them Japanese because you don't want to offend them?"

"No. I call them Japanese because it offends Britannians."

Kallen noticed Lelouchs apparent familiarity with lies, and he seemed to scoff at Britannian ideals, so she had him pinned in her mind as a sympathizer. But right now he seemed to just be naturally antagonistic.

She noticed that Lelouch was staring intently at something behind her. When she started to turn around, he suddenly grabbed her head and turned her face towards him.

"Uh, what are you doing?" she asked uncomfortably.

He kept on staring behind her. "Nothing," he said. "Actually, I was wondering if you could do something for me."

Their noses were inches apart. That was a good deal closer than what she was comfortable with.

"If you're asking me what I think you're asking, the answer's no!"

Lelouch paused, and finally looked her in the eye. "What do you think I'm asking you?"

She hesitated and felt her face getting hot. "Uh, I don't know. What was it that you wanted me to do?"

"You tell me first."

"What? I don't have to tell you anything!" She stomped off without looking at whatever it was Lelouch had been looking at. "And whatever it was you wanted me to do, the answer's still no!"

Zero smiled, pleased with how he handled the situation. The Q-1 he knew would take orders from one man and one man only, and that man was not Lelouch Lamperouge. Now he just had to deal with an immortal witch who didn't seem to understand that she shouldn't be walking around in broad daylight. He took C.C. by the arm and dragged her to a secluded spot on the roof.

"You shouldn't be here," he said coldly. "For someone in hiding, you're awfully careless."

"You worry too much," she replied. "No one's going to notice me in a place like this."

"No?" Lelouch snorted. "We have a contract, C.C., and for that contract, you're going to want to keep me from getting killed. Lelouch won't need your help staying alive, but Zero will. Did you see the girl I was talking to just now? Well, she's part of my group. If she sees you hanging around me, and then sees you at Zero's side, do you think she might notice then? And in a few days, a future Knight of the Rounds is going to enroll here. Do you think that _he_ might notice something?"

C.C. gazed absent mindedly off into the distance. "You seem to know a lot about the future."

"Yes," he replied. "And I know a lot about you. I know what you are, what my part of the contract is, what the Emperor wants with you. I even know your real name."

That, at least, got her attention. "You do?"

"Yes." He said her name.

C.C. shook her head, unimpressed. "That's not at all how you're supposed to say it. You got the syllables right, but you said it like you would say the name of a street."

Zero had a sudden urge to throw her off the roof, but that would attract attention. "You asked me last night if we have done this before, and I told you yes. You were watching when I organized the Order of the Black Knights, and made them into an army superior to that of Britannia. I shook the foundations of the entire world, but then it all fell apart."

"I faced my Father, the Emperor, on the Sword of Akasha on the verge of the completion of the Ragnarok Connection. But then something happened. I suddenly woke up almost two years in the past and a few weeks before I met you. So tell me, C.C., what do you know about time travel?"

"I know," she said, "that you ask too many questions."

"Tell me!" he exploded. "Or else I'll…I'll…" What could he say to get C.C. to cooperate? How could he threaten an immortal witch with no fear of death and whose only concern seemed to be keeping him alive? "I'll stop leaving my credit card at home so you can't order pizza when I'm away."

C.C. stared stonily off into the distance. "You are indeed a cold and ruthless man."

It wasn't until that moment that Lelouch finally understood her, why she was always so ornery when it would be so easy to cooperate. At first he thought that it was just a game to her, but that wasn't it. It was about power.

Centuries ago, when C.C. first gained her Geass, she was unbelievably powerful. She could control the entire world just by smiling at it. But then she lost that power, and when she lost her power, she lost everything. She spent the last several hundred years burnt, beheaded, shot at, and unable to die, because she had no power to prevent that. The little power she did have, her knowledge most of all, she treasured dearly, and was reluctant to part with it.

"C.C., last night, I saw you folding origami cranes with my sister. Did she tell you why she was folding them?"

C.C. didn't answer.

"She heard that if you fold one thousand cranes, you receive one wish. I never noticed this before, but if you look at a paper crane head on, it looks a lot like the tattoo on your forehead. When you gave me the Geass, that was part of what I needed to obtain my wish. And now, as Zero, people trust me and obey me, but not because I trust them. They trust me because I give them hope that their wishes too may be granted."

"It is that same hope that I offer you right now. Follow me, trust me, and one day I will fulfill your wish too. I know what our contract is, I know what you want, and I know how I can do it. When this is over, I will take your curse of immortality from you. But first I need your help. I need to know what you know."

WWW

a/n If you read this on the first day, you'd have noticed a slight mistake I made with the publishing, but I fixed that now. Ha, ha, my bad, and now let us never speak of it again. And thus we have the third chapter. I really hate writing the same thing that happened in the canon, but if I skip too much, it just seems choppy. Grr, this is frustrating. I hope it wasn't too redundant. I really appreciate the reviews everyone is giving me. I really don't understand why my other stories don't get the same treatment, because this story is not, by any means, the best thing I've ever written. The wish idea was had in the canon, but clarify the symbolism a little bit more. By the way, some of you have pointed out some of the mistakes I've made, but none of you have noticed the biggest mistake. In the first chapter, Lelouch saw a news report about poisonous gas, but in the canon, it was only reported as a traffic jam. I'm surprised that none of my heartless, bloodsucking critics noticed that (no offense). Also, some of you may have noticed that Lelouch is a bit softer than he was at the end of the second season. Well, the reason for that the same as why Suzaku became a total jerk after Euphie died. After Lelouch lost his sister, he became darker. After he got her back in the first chapter, the process was reversed.


	4. Chapter 4

Your Past, My Future

Chapter Four

a/n I do not own Code Geass

Every since he joined the military, Suzaku had always followed orders. Britannia had little patience for insubordination, and even less for Numbers. So, when Princess Euphemia had told him to go back to school, he had obeyed her without question.

He did have questions, of course, he just didn't voice them. For example, he wanted to know why a princess of the Holy Britannian Empire would care about his education. But, to be honest, he probably would have obeyed her even if she wasn't royalty.

"My name is Kururugi Suzaku," he said, introducing himself in front of his class. "I'm an honorary Britannian, and I'm going to be going to school here."

He looked at his classmates. Their faces looked back at him with expressions mixed with fear, shock, and disgust. _No surprises here._ But then he saw a face that did surprise him. A very familiar one.

_Lelouch._

WWW

Lelouch looked at Suzaku as he introduced himself. This was, for Zero, the third time his friend had transferred to Ashford Academy. Last time, the second time, Suzaku came to spy on him, to see if Lelouch really was Zero. Both of them pretended to be friends, both of them tried to destroy the other. Needless to say, their friendship had been stretched.

However, the _third _time, would be much like the first time Suzaku started school here. In Suzaku's mind, he and Lelouch were still friends. And so Zero would have to play along.

After class, Lelouch tugged on his collar before going on the roof. Before the war, they had invented a code of body language just for fun. Well, Lelouch invented it. Suzaku mostly memorized.

Suzaku followed him up a few seconds later. "Hey, Lelouch," he said. "I can't remember the last time I used that code. Why did we spend so much time working on it when we were younger anyway?"

"It was a game and we were ten," Lelouch replied. "Practicality was the exact opposite of our objective."

Suzaku laughed easily. "By the way, after the war I found a record saying that Lelouch vi Britannia and his sister had died. Who are you now?"

"I changed my last name to Lamperouge, but I kept the name my mother gave me."

"Lelouch Lamperouge," Suzaku said. "I like the alliteration. It's catchy."

"Thank you."

"I was pretty worried about you after the Shinjuku incident. What happened to you?"

"That's rich," Lelouch said with a laugh. "You get shot in the back, and you're worried about me. That is so like you. What happened was that the soldiers ran into some terrorists, and in the commotion I managed to escape."

"And that girl in the capsule?"

"I don't know."

Suzaku looked off into the distance. "We should probably pretend not to know each other at school. People might start asking questions, and it could blow your cover and people might find out you're a prince."

"Do you think that an Eleven can make it through a school full of Britannians on his own?"

"None of these Britannians have guns," he said with a laugh. "I can take care of myself."

"That's ridiculous, Suzaku," Lelouch said. "You were always hopeless on your own. But if you want to be an idiot, well, that's your decision, not mine." Lelouch turned to leave, then stopped. "Have dinner with Nunnally and me tonight. When you were about to be executed, I promised her that you'd see her again."

"Of course," Suzaku said. "I'll be there."

WWW

"They say he's the one who murdered Prince Clovis," said a student.

"But I thought Zero did that," said another.

"Well he must have done something," the first replied. "Why do you think they arrested him in the first place?"

"Do you think he's a terrorist?"

"Definitely. Just look at him! That is, without a doubt, the face of a killer."

Kallen looked at the face in question. If anything, Suzaku's face looked lonely and a little sad. What made people say that he looked like a killer, Kallen couldn't begin to understand.

_Britannians are all idiots,_ she decided.

If Kallen could have one wish, it would have been to be able to say that out loud. But she couldn't. It might be suspicious, and besides, she was a sick, frail, little girl. If she did anything too aggressive, people might figure out that she wasn't.

Instead, she left the room and called Ohgi.

"Hey, Kallen," he said. "How's it going for you?"

"It sucks," she replied. "If I go much longer pretending to be as weak as a kitten, I think I'm going to throw up."

"Try it," Ohgi suggested. "It will make your sick act more convincing."

"Ha, ha. Any news from Zero?"

"No. I was hoping that he would have contacted you. Princess Cornelia arrived, and she's been doing things I would have sworn were impossible."

"Like what?"

"Like make me miss Prince Clovis. I'm starting to wish that Zero hadn't killed him in the first place."

"Yeah, well, maybe Zero will kill the rest of the family, too," Kallen said with a laugh.

"We can only hope," Ohgi replied. "How's school going for you?"

"I've had perfect attendance for the past week," she said with disgust. "Do you remember the last time that has happened to me? I mean, Zero has done some pretty amazing stuff, but it seems he won't do it if it's not grandiose enough for him."

"Rescuing accused murders doesn't seem very grandiose to me," Ohgi said. "But the publicity he got out of the Suzaku event _was_ incredible."

"Oh, about the Suzaku event, well, he's here."

"He's here?"

"Yes. Kururugi Suzaku, son of the late Japanese prime minister, accused murderer of Prince Clovis, and now Ashford Academy's first Honorary Britannian student."

"No way," Ohgi whispered.

"Yes way."

"Do you think that…"

"Maybe. They went off together, but he never tells us anything."

"I wonder what Zero said to him back there," Ohgi said.

"Do you want me to ask him for you?"

"Who? Suzaku or Zero?"

"Either," Kallen said.

"No," Ohgi replied. "Zero won't answer anyway, and we don't know whose side Suzaku's on."

"Do you want me to do anything?"

"Not really."

"Fine, fine," Kallen said. "Although it is odd. Ashford's one of the best schools in the country. There's no way someone like Suzaku could have afforded this place alone."

"Don't ask him about that either."

"Do you want me to talk to him at all?"

"You probably shouldn't," Ohgi replied. "Don't forget, you're pretending to be Britannian. If you talk to him, it might arouse suspicion."

"You're always like that," Kallen complained. "You're always telling me to be careful."

"I'll stop telling you to be careful when you finally are."

"I'm always careful!"

"Sure you are."

WWW

That night, Lelouch greeted his sister when she arrived. "Welcome home, Nunnally."

"Good evening, Onii-sama."

"I have a present for you," Lelouch said, just as he had said the first time. But he wasn't doing it out of habit, or nostalgia. He was doing it for his sister.

Suzaku gave Nunnally his hand, and she recognized it immediately. "This hand…" She took it, felt it, and her tears flowed over it. "This hand…"

"Hello, Nunnally," Suzaku said. "It's good to see you again."

"You…you're back. I thought you'd be gone forever, but you're back," Nunnally sobbed. "Just like Lelouch promised."

They ate dinner together, just like they did years ago, just like they did when they were still friends, and hadn't been on opposite sides in this unending war.

Afterwards, Suzaku left to go home, but then he stopped and turned around.

"Nunnally said that when I was accused of murder, you promised that I'd be back. How did you know that they'd drop the charges?"

"Call it a gamble," Lelouch replied. "You don't strike me as the kind of person who would let himself be killed so easily. You have too many people counting on you."

"And if I was executed?" Suzaku asked. "What would you have told her then?"

"I would have figured something out," Lelouch said indifferently.

Suzaku thought about that and laughed. "You haven't changed a bit. After all these years, you're still the same Lelouch."

"What do you mean?"

"Do you remember the first time we met, when you first came here?" he asked. "My father put you up in my old clubhouse, and you started describing to Nunnally what a beautiful mansion it was, and then I saw you and was like, 'What are you talking about? That's not a mansion, it's just a dinky little shed."

"And then I tried to hit you," Lelouch supplied.

"You hit like a girl back then," Suzaku laughed. "And then Nunnally asked what was going on, and I realized that she was blind, and you were just lying to create a pleasant world for your little sister." Suzaku looked him straight in the eye. "I guess, after all this time, you're trying to do the same thing."

WWW

"That man," C.C. said in Lelouch's bedroom afterwards. "He's that soldier from before."

"Yes," Zero replied. "In my other future, he became a Knight of the Rounds. He has caused me no end of trouble. Suzaku has always fought against me, hunted me, and in my most desperate hour, I decided to trust in him as a friend. I bowed before him, as I have done before no man in my life, and begged him for his help, and he stomped my face into the dirt and betrayed me."

"Then tell him to die," C.C. suggested. "That would be the easiest solution."

"It would be," Lelouch admitted. "But in the beginning, I had countless opportunities to kill him, but I always sparred him, hoping that he would later join me, or that I could just go around him. But right now, I could command him to die, or deliver his Lancelot and die, or join the Black Knights, or countless other things."

"Then why don't you?"

Lelouch hesitated. "Because I don't need to. He's too predictable to be that great of a threat, and _this_ time, I won't waste my Geass on him to save his life. And if he gets in my way again, I can always kill him. And there's nothing he'll be able to do to stop me."

WWW

Never in his life had Suzaku commanded such respect among his peers. His classmates immediately went silent in his presence, and they always gave him a wide berth when they saw him coming down the hallway. Of course, that was probably due to more a fear of contamination than anything else.

"I can't believe they let an Eleven in here," a girl whispered.

"Oh, I'm sure he's not so bad once you get to know him," suggested a girl with orange hair optimistically.

"That's, uh, not really a good idea," said another.

It wasn't really surprising. This was just something that he would have to change. Changing things was, after all, the reason why he joined the Britannian army in the first place. Eventually, they would come to terms with the fact that he was a human being just like them. Until then, he would deal with anything they gave him, because he could take it.

So far, all that meant was evil eyes, cold shoulders, and—as he opened his locker—extra laundry. Suzaku looked at his gym shirt and found graffiti all over it._ Well, that's a waste of time,_ he thought._ It would have been a lot more trouble if they just hid it somewhere._

Suzaku took it to a sink to try to wash the paint off. His shirt was covered with racial slurs, telling him to go back to the ghetto because this school was too good for the likes of him._ Well, apparently not, because that is _not _how you spell ghetto._

"I'll never understand how you do it."

Suzaku looked up and saw Lelouch behind him. "Well, it has a lot to do with the right kind of soap."

"No, not your shirt, you!" he retorted. "I could never bow down to my enemies like you do. You could throw every student in this school out a window if you wanted to, but instead you just take it, like you're laughing at a bad joke that isn't funny just because you know you're expected to."

"I can't imagine you bowing to anyone," Suzaku replied. "But it's not as bad as you think. After you get though all the discrimination, they're not bad people. There's a lot to admire about them, and some of them actually have respectable ideals."

"_Ideals?_ Their only _ideals_ are that people like you aren't worth crap! They make gold out of _your_ blood, Suzaku, and build their mansions on the graves of your ancestors. Don't talk to me about their _ideals_, because there's not a Britannian out there who wouldn't sell out their best friend for a decent promotion, and if you keep on following them, you'll end up just like them!"

Suzaku stepped back in surprise and blinked slowly. "What happened to you?" he whispered. "When did you become so…jaded?"

"Gee, I don't know," Lelouch sneered sarcastically. "Maybe I'm still just a little bitter about how they came over to this country eight years ago."

"Seven years ago," he corrected.

"Time is relative. And where, where, _where_ did that cat come from?" Lelouch pointed at Arthur, a stray cat that Suzaku had found two days before.

"What, you don't like cats?" Suzaku asked, unsure about this change in conversation.

"I like cats," he said. "I just don't like that one." _That stupid cat stole my mask once and nearly blew my cover!_

"Well, I sort of found him," Suzaku replied vaguely.

"And you took him home with you?"

Suzaku nodded.

"Suzaku, cats don't like you. Cat's hate you. I have never met a single housecat that didn't try to scratch, bite, or claw at you every chance it got."

"Well, it's sort of a long story," he said with an embarrassed smile on his face.

"What happened?"

"Well, I was minding my own business the other day, when out of nowhere, a girl fell right into my arms. I mean it. She just fell out of the sky. She said that some bad men were chasing her and she wanted my help. Why are you laughing at me?"

"Nothing," Lelouch said. "It's just that you're the only person in the entire world who could pull something like that off."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing. Carry on."

"Right," Suzaku said. "So, I knew it was a lie from the start, but I decided to just play along. But every time I tried to ask her who she was, she changed the subject. Once, I asked her a question, and I found her talking to a lame cat. We bandaged the cat's leg, and when she finally left, I sort of ended up with, well, Arthur."

"So you went on a date with a mystery girl, and kept a scruffy animal to remember her by," Lelouch summarized.

"Pretty much."

"Does the phrase hopeless romantic mean anything to you?"

Suzaku laughed. "Yeah, well you didn't see her."

"I suppose I would have had to. Did you even get her name after all that?"

"Sure," Suzaku said. "Her name was, um, Euphie."

Lelouch stopped suddenly. "Euphie?" he repeated.

"Why? Do you…"

"No," he said quickly. "I just…" He swallowed. "I need to go."

Lelouch left quickly, just to get away. He realized suddenly that it was with Euphemia's death that it had all gone wrong. If Suzaku took the cat to remember her, well, he kept that cat with him for more than a year after she died, and when they met for the last time before battle at Tokyo, Suzaku had brought up her death.

He had always hated Suzaku for selling him to the Emperor, for betraying him, but if Suzaku had killed Nunnally, well, Lelouch wouldn't just stop at killing him.

And Princess Euphemia…she shouldn't have died like she did. She shouldn't have died at all. She wanted nothing more than to bring peace to the world. She forgave Lelouch for killing Clovis without a second thought, and asked Zero for his help with the Special Administration Zone, and he promised her that he would help. Lelouch had been lying for most of his life, but he kept his promises, and he promised Euphie that he would help her.

And then he killed her.

And that's when it all went wrong.

So many times, he told himself that if he had the chance, he would do it all over again. But now that he actually had that chance…

"So. How long have you been so vehemently anti-Britannian?"

Lelouch turned around, and saw Kallen looking back at him. But it wasn't Kallen Stadfield's eyes staring at him. Her expression was that of Kallen Kouzuki.

WWW

The first time Lelouch played this game, he had done everything possible to keep anyone from suspecting that he was Zero. But that was, in retrospect, a waste of time. The second time Suzaku was transferred to Ashford, it was with the full purpose of spying on him. He had every reason to suspect, but Suzaku hadn't done anything until Lelouch had told him as bluntly as possible who he was. It wasn't that Suzaku hadn't caught on, he just didn't _want_ to believe.

And Kallen… If she had more reason to suspect him to be Zero, then maybe it wouldn't have been such a shock to her when she found out, and maybe she wouldn't have questioned him at gunpoint afterwards.

"Just how much of that conversation did you overhear?"

"I overheard something about Britannian ideals," Kallen said.

"I suppose this should be a fairly embarrassing situation for me, but then again, if you didn't agree with me, you would have confronted me right now."

"You seem pretty sure of yourself."

"I took a psychology class last year." It was next year, technically, but Lelouch doubted that Kallen would check.

"Let's just say I'm curious."

Lelouch thought for a moment. He had no reason to tell her everything, but did he have any reason to lie? And if he didn't tell her something, she might start asking questions.

"Did I ever tell you what happened to my sister?"

Kallen thought of that sweet faced, gentle blind girl in a wheelchair. She shook her head.

"Long ago, when I lived in Britannia, my mother was gunned down as a victim of political intrigue. A high ranking Britannian official didn't wish to punish the perpetrator, so he reenacted it, but the second time she was killed by terrorists, and the second time, my sister was there to watch. Her legs never healed from the bullet wounds, and the psychological trauma prevents her from opening her eyes to this day."

Kallen's eyes widened as she stepped back. "That's…that's…I'm so sorry."

"For what? For bringing it up?" He laughed mirthlessly. "I have my sister's wheelchair to do that for me on a daily basis."

"I can't believe…that's horrible," she whispered. "But, what did your father do when he found out?"

"You're asking a lot of questions," Lelouch noted. "And you don't seem half as sick as you were twenty minutes ago."

Kallen's expression grew more cautious, but she didn't back down. Q-1 seldom did.

"But it's like I told you," Lelouch said before leaving. "My father didn't wish to punish the perpetrator."

WWW

Cornelia was not a princess to be taken lightly. She was no pampered flower, no spoiled fool. That was her brother, Prince Clovis, and it was his blood that she would avenge.

_Zero._

The audacity of such a man was astounding. To waltz past layers of security, shoot a son of the Emperor, and just walk away without a trace was an insult. And then to publically announce it in front of a number of knightmares and leave unharmed with a prisoner, well, that was not a slight that Cornelia would allow to pass unpunished.

"He didn't show," she stated.

"No," Darlton said.

"One of the largest fronts in the resistance falls, and Zero is nowhere to be found. What will it take to find this man? An invitation? 'Zero, you are cordially invited to face judgment for murder and sedition.'"

"He does seem rather…egoistical," Dalton suggested.

"True," Cornelia admitted. Zero proved that in his public confession. "Very well, if fighting Elevens with guns won't summon him, perhaps killing Elevens without them will. Dalton, have the men surround the Saitama ghetto. If we have to eliminate every Eleven in that squalor for Zero to surface, then so be it."

And if it didn't work, she wasn't losing anything important.

If Princess Cornelia had to burn the entire ghetto to the ground to find the man who killed her brother, she would.

If she had to burn the entire country to find that man, she would.

WWW

"It's a trap," C.C. said. "You know it is."

"It's an invitation," Lelouch corrected. "It would be rude of me to turn it down."

"You're rather reckless, aren't you?"

"Not at all," he replied, packing his Zero costume. "Cornelia's making the same mistake I did the first time she tried this. I played against her using the same tactics I used against Clovis, even though she knew what I did then and was expecting it. This time, she's going to use the same tactics she used against me the first time, and I know exactly what to expect."

"So if you know what she intends to do, what are you going to do?"

Zero closed his suitcase and started for the door. "I'm going to win."

WWW

Zero waited in Saitama in a soldier's uniform for a knightmare to find him. Any knightmare would do. He had stopped using this trick after the Black Knights had enough funds to obtain their own frames, but there was something delightfully effective about using the enemy's weapons against them.

He wasn't going to make the same mistake he made the first time. Zero underestimated Cornelia the first time, but she was more than twice the strategist Clovis was, and twice the pilot Zero was. But she suffered from the same arrogance, the same illogical sense of invulnerability that plagued the royal family.

Then, finally, a Sutherland's pilot took the bait.

"What unit are you apart of?" the pilot asked. "Give me your name and ID number."

"My name is Arthur Doyle, of the third reconnaissance company," he responded dutifully. "I managed to capture this disc from a terrorist. I'd like you to escort me to the headquarters."

"A disk?" The pilot opened the hatch of his knightmare and got out. "In that case, I'll have to confirm your ID."

"You could try," Zero replied, pulling out his suitcase. "But instead, you are going to put on this costume."

WWW

Princess Cornelia watched the radar for some sign of resistance. All of the leaders were killed early on, and so far the only thing that was happening was slaughter. Then it happened.

Five separate squads of Sutherlands were destroyed in distinct locations simultaneously without warning. Before she could devise a counter attack, two more squads were taken out as well as the bridge. Cornelia took a moment to admire the strategic brilliance of the attack before giving her orders.

"Have all units withdraw."

"But your Highness," an officer protested. "We still have a major advantage."

"No, if we remain, we'll only waste resources. This is exactly what happened in Shinjuku, it's Zero's signature. Now that we know he's there, it's time we leave."

She watched her units withdraw. Zero was ambitious, and would try to assassinate her if he had the chance, and to do that, he would have to be…

"I'll when this one." she promised.

She watched as her knightmares retreated. Zero was, in all likelihood, piloting one. A Sutherland activated its transponder and a distress signal.

_Predictable._ "Eliminate it," she ordered. A squad of knightmares moved to obey, but all of them were intercepted in transit.

"Nice move," she admitted. "Perhaps this is the real Zero after all." She played the game for a few more rounds, and every time the resistance came out ahead, but Cornelia was too smart to let herself blunder too greatly. And finally the withdraw was complete.

"All knightmare pilots," she ordered. "Open your hatches and show your faces!"

One by one, the Sutherlands opened up and revealed their pilots. _If you're here, Zero, then—_

A Sutherland opened fire on the others. Before Cornelia could order to have him taken alive, a Gloucester drove its lance into the knightmare frame, destroying it in a burst of fire.

_Desperate._ "Go through the wreckage," she ordered. "Find out who the pilot was."

A team pealed back the burning steel to uncover the hatch. The charred flesh that used to be the pilot's body was unrecognizable, but the mask stuck to the man's blackened skull wasn't. A soldier removed it and handed the mask to Cornelia.

She the mask of Zero high above her head and proclaimed loudly to her troops, "Zero is dead! Prince Clovis is avenged! All hail Britannia!"

_ALL HAIL BRITANNIA!_

_WWW_

_ALL HAIL BRITANNIA!_

Suzaku watched the announcement with surprise. Zero was a murderer and a terrorist, and he had incited war and rebellion, but that man had saved his life. He had spoken to Suzaku as though he knew that he would do great things.

And now he was dead.

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_ALL HAIL BRITANNIA!_

Kallen stared at the television screen in shock and fear. _This can't be happening._ She barely knew the masked man, but he appeared out of nowhere as a godsend in Shinjuku. And when he showed himself to rescue Suzaku, he had walked and spoken so confidently, it was like he thought that he could do anything.

And she had started to believe him.

And now he was gone. Britannia took him, just like Britannia took her brother. _That's all they do,_ Kallen thought bitterly. _All they do is take._

WWW

_ALL HAIL BRITANNIA!_

Lelouch watched as, for the third time in his memory, Zero was pronounced dead. But every time Zero died, he came back, untouched, unvarnished, as if her were a god to bring justice to a corrupt world. Just as his foes rejoiced in his death, they would fear him all the more when the world saw how death fled from him.

_ZERO IS DEAD!_

Zero threw his head back and laughed.

WWW

a/n And thus we have the fourth chapter. The battle of Saitama was the first time Zero made a strategic mistake, so it's the first time he made a significant change. I like Suzaku's character because I like the idea of best friends being mortal enemies. It worked in X-men, it worked in Unbreakable, and it worked in Code Geass. As always, I appreciate reviews. While I may not admit it, I do take into account the suggestions you give me.


	5. Chapter 5

You're Past, My Future

Chapter Five

a/n I own nothing. Even the computer I'm using belongs to the library. Sorry, I guess I'm just cheap like that.

_It never ceases to amaze me how easily the masses are fooled. As one mind the faceless millions laugh, weep, and die like sheep._

"Were people such fools in your day, C.C.?"

"My day was a long time ago," she replied. "But they weren't called the Dark Ages for their shining intellect."

"Or their witch trials."

"So now that you're dead, aren't you worried that people will lose faith in you?"

"Faith is like a bone," he replied. "When broken, it heals stronger. In the zenith of my power before, there were some who looked to me like a savior and a god. My resurrection will only speed up the process."

"Just as long as you don't die for real, do whatever you like."

Zero laughed. "I have been dead for most of my life. Before you gave me the Geass, I existed in a world I was powerless to change. But you saved me from that, and when my Geass was sealed, you brought me back. And for my third time, I was a powerless, animated corpse, and you gave me life. I will die as many times as I need to, just as long as I accomplish my goal."

C.C. gazed distantly out the window. _If that's what life is,_ she thought, _to have power to change the world, then I've been dead for…_

WWW

Zero spent the next few days furnishing the future headquarters of the Black Knights. The first time, he had his resistance members unpack the necessities, but right now, they thought he was dead. And if he told them, they would tell their friends, who would tell _their_ friends, who would tell Britannian informants, who would tell Princess Cornelia. And Zero didn't want her to find out, not until he told her himself.

The Britannians that he had obtained by the Geass finished setting up the equipment before returning home and forgetting they had ever seen him. That was one of the most useful aspects of his power, that his Geass automatically covered its own tracks.

Lelouch's phone rang. _Rivalz. _ "Hello?"

"Lelouch!" his friend exclaimed. "Did you hear? This is terrible!"

"Terrible?" Lelouch asked. "Something terrible…involving something a bet you made?"

"No, worse! You mean, you really haven't heard?"

"Let's assume that I haven't," Lelouch replied with slight annoyance. "Please, enlighten me."

"Well, are you watching the news?"

"No. Why?"

"Uh, do you remember how the girls from the student council went on a trip to Kawaguchi Lake?"

"Hold on." Lelouch turned on the TV. "They've been taken hostage by the Japan Liberation front," he noted.

"I know!" Rivalz exclaimed. "They might get killed! What are we going to do?"

"Relax, Rivalz."

"Relax? How can I relax at a time like this? What, do you think that if I just sit back and twiddle my thumbs, some miracle will occur and everyone will get out safely?"

"Relax, Rivalz," he said again. "Because there is nothing you can do. But I have to go now. I'll call you back later." He hung up the phone.

Zero looked at the television screen. This was how he made the debut of the Order of the Black Knights the first time, by freeing the hostages. He wasn't sure that the JLF would act the same way, but apparently they had. It was just like it was the first time.

Only it wasn't. Looking at the footage of the hostages, he saw something there that shouldn't have been, and something was missing that should have been there.

Princess Euphemia was not among the hostages. Kallen was.

WWW

Kallen had been feeling down since Saitama. What Zero had done in Shinjuku was strategic brilliance on the verge of being a miracle. And then when the masked them had them rescue Kururugi, it had been impossible, but they did it. _He _did it. All of reason said that they should have died that night, but somehow, he pulled through.

And now he was dead.

It shouldn't have ended like that. Saitama was a trap to lure him out, an obvious trap, and he walked right into it. It was almost as if he gave himself up so Princess Cornelia would stop slaughtering the Japanese to find him.

That man seemed too egoistical to sacrifice himself, but he wore a proud mask. And—_to sacrifice himself for those around him—_that seemed like something her brother would do, something that her brother _did._ And just like her brother, he was gone.

It was like a terrible, relentless, crushing weight. It was enough to make her want to give up, but if she backed down, if she stopped fighting, her brother would have died for nothing.

"Kallen? Are you okay?"

Kallen's head jerked up. "Oh, yeah, Shirley. I just…zoned out a bit."

Shirley looked intently at her. There was something intensely sincere and caring about her gaze that made Kallen feel uncomfortable.

"I'm fine, I mean it."

"Oh." Her face burst into a hopeful smile. "Are you coming with us to Kawaguchi Lake this weekend?"

"I don't think so."

"Oh, come on! It will be fun! We'll be able to just relax and take a break from life for a while and go somewhere new."

Kallen felt herself yielding under Shirley's vicious onslaught of sweetness and kindhearted sincerity. She didn't, after all, have any reason to say no. "Sure."

WWW

When Kallen had first joined the student council, she had no idea what she was getting into. Now, more than a week later, she still had no idea.

"So we're going to have the whole weekend together," Milly said. "Just us girls. We'll be able to talk about…" She grinned mischievously. "…stuff."

"Stuff?" Kallen asked. "What sort of stuff?"

"Oh, you know," Milly purred. "Personal hobbies, hidden kirks, secret love interests."

Out of the corner of her eye, Kallen saw Shirley give her an oddly hurt look. Then she forced a smile.

"Hey, Kallen?" she said. "Do you want me to help you with your suitcase?"

"No, I'm fine."

"No really," Shirley said. "I insist. I know how you're always sick all the time."

"Uh, okay." Kallen hated milking her fake sickness for pity favors, but it would be suspicious to refuse.

Shirley picked up Kallen's luggage along with hers and bolted up the stairs as Milly and Nina occupied themselves with registration.

"Is there a reason you're going so fast?" Kallen asked.

"What? No, I just, uh, like running," she said brightly.

_Fine, tell me later._

"It was number 317 that we're staying in, right?"

Kallen took out her key. "Right."

They went into the room and Shirley set the suitcases on the floor. Kallen looked out the window. "We have a great view of the lake from here," she said. "You should see this."

Shirley didn't say anything for a while. "Kallen," she said finally. "You're hiding something from us, aren't you?"

Kallen stiffened but struggled to keep her expression neutral. "What do you mean?"

"Just quit playing dumb! I know what it is!" Shirley said. Kallen reached for her knife. "You're dating Lulu, aren't you?"

"…what? But—that's ridiculous! I barely know him!"

"I saw you!" Shirley said accusingly. "I saw you two together on the grounds yesterday!"

"Hold on, that day he just—"

"You mean it was him?"

"No, well, I—"

"And there's the look in his eyes when you're with him—"

"_What?_ Listen, Shirley—"

"And then there's the way he talks to you—"

"Would you just stop talking for—"

"And then there's—Kallen, why are you holding a knife?"

"Kallen looked at the knife in her hand and dropped it like a scorpion. "Uh, how'd that get there?" she said lamely. Shirley looked at her unconvinced. _What I wouldn't do for a decent distraction right now._ "Well, you see Shirley, I—"

A deafening explosion shook the hotel and Kallen heard the sound of gunfire.

_That could work._

"What was that?" Shirley asked.

"Something bad," Kallen suggested. She glanced out the window, wondering if they could survive the jump. It didn't look good.

"Do you think Milly and Nina are okay?" Shirley asked fearfully.

_If we tie the sheets together to make a rope—_"Crap! They have the hotel surrounded!"

"Who?"

"Can't tell. Terrorists, I hope."

"Why do you hope for terrorists?"

"Because it's either terrorists or psychopaths," Kallen said. "And psychopaths are worse."

A member of the Japan Liberation Front with a very big gun kicked open the door to their room. "I want your hands where I can see them, Brits!"

_Brits?_ If there was one thing Kallen hated being called more than Eleven, it was Brit, but she bit back her retort. There was something about the way the man held his gun that screamed, "Trigger happy."

"Alright, you win," Kallen said. "We surrender." Shirley looked at her and nodded at the man.

"Go down the hall and up the stairs to the eighth floor," he ordered. His eyes narrowed dangerously at the two of them. "And just try to pull something clever. I would _love_ the excuse to paint the walls with your blood."

They started down the hallway submissively with the others who were herded by the JLF. "Well, at least their terrorists," Shirley said meekly. "I mean, it could be worse, right?"

WWW

The hours passed as Kallen sat in a crowded room with the other hostages from the hotel. They were surrounded by men with guns guarding them so they wouldn't escape. The room stank of fear and desperation, and not only from the hostages. The men from the Japan Liberation Front were led by a man named Kusakabe, and to use a tactic like taking civilian hostages to release political prisoners would probably accomplish nothing more than get someone killed.

And by someone Kallen meant everyone. The person on the Britannian's side in charge of the negations was Princess Cornelia, and she had a "no negotiations" approach to terrorism. If what Kallen knew about the princess was true, then if things got dicey, she would just blow the hotel to smithereens and blame it on the terrorists.

On the other hand, Kusakabe was a man of no small reputation either, and according to that reputation, if things got dicey, he would kill all the hostages before allowing himself to be captured. For Kallen and the rest of the hostages, the question was not if they would die, but how, and that wasn't a pleasant question to think about, but Kallen found herself thinking about it a great deal.

_If I tell the JLF I'm a resistance member, maybe they'll let me go—_or they'll make her prove it and recruit her—_but if I get them to let me guard the entrance and then make a break for it—_they'd gun her down before she got fifty meters, and then there was the Britannian military to worry about.

"You!" barked a guard to a random hostage. "Come with us!"

The hostage followed the guards out of the room meekly. A few minutes later, a frantic scream fell past the window. From the roof, Kusakabe spoke through a megaphone.

"Princess Cornelia of Britannia!" he bellowed. "You have ignored our demands at the expense of the lives of Britannian civilians. If you continue to resist us, a hostage will die every thirty minutes until our demands are met."

"This is bad," Nina whispered. "The Elevens are going to kill us!"

"Don't say that," Milly told her. "Nothing's going to happen to you, I promise."

"But they just threw someone off the roof! For no reason!"

"Yeah, but pretty soon Princess Cornelia is going to break through," Shirley promised. "And then we'll all go home and forget this ever happened."

Kallen wished she could say something comforting too, but it didn't come. In all likelihood, they were all going to die. Well, almost everyone. Kallen might be able to save herself, but that was it. _Survival of the fittest._ She was fitter than the rest of the student council, she was a fighter, a survivor.

She could get out alive, but could she save anyone? She knew of a few people who could manage to sacrifice themselves to save those close to them; they were all dead. Kallen was a fighter, a survivor, but no one's hero.

Then someone called her. She set her cell phone so it would vibrate twice before ringing. She moved to turn it off before the terrorists noticed. Then she saw who it was.

_Zero._

She stared blankly at the name on her phone. _Impossible!_ He was dead, he died in Saitama, his mask hung on Cornelia's wall as a trophy.

Her phone vibrated again.

_A dead man's calling me,_ she thought. _But it can't be. Someone else just has Zero's phone. _That made more sense. But why would—

Her phone started to ring and she answered it before anyone could hear. "H-hello?"

"Hello, Q-1."

"It's—" She lowered her voice. "It's really you! But, you're dead. They said so on the news."

"Do you believe everything you see on the news?" he asked with a patronizing tone. "The news is controlled by Britannia, and veracity is not something they're known for."

Kallen took a breath to calm herself. None of the guards seemed to notice her. "Right. What do you want me to do? I'm not really free to move around."

"I want you to tell General Kusakabe that I'd like to speak with him."

"Is that all?" Kallen asked. "Sure, no problem, I think I can handle that." She glanced at all the men holding guns. "Uh, what is it that you're going to do about him?"

"The war against Britannia is not a war that can be won through acts of terrorism," he replied. "If I cannot persuade Kusakabe to understand that, then he is needlessly taking innocent lives, and is no different from Britannia."

Kallen thought about how many people Zero had in their resistance unit, and then about the members of the JLF and the Britannian military surrounding the hotel. "I hope you have one heck of a plan."

"I always do," Zero replied and hung up.

Kallen racked her mind for an idea to get her in contact with the general. "Zero came back to life and told me he wants to talk with your leader," was the simplest solution, but all the members of the student council would know she was a terrorist. And yet if she didn't, her friends would die, and she'd let Zero down.

That's what it came down to. She tried to stand up to announce herself, but…when had her identity as Kallen Stadtfeld become so important to her? It was just a lie, an illusion, a—

"Take that back!"

Kallen jumped and saw a member of the JLF pointing a gun at Nina and yelling.

"We are Japanese! Eleven is an insult that _your_ people gave us!"

Nina trembled violently and looked like she might turn into water any minute. "She takes it back already!" Milly said protectively.

"Please, calm down," Shirley begged. "You're scaring her!"

"You have no right to speak to me like that!" the guard roared. He yanked Nina to her feet by her arm. "Come with me! I'll teach you a lesson you won't forget!"

"Leave her alone!" Kallen found herself on her feet with every eye in the room looking at her. "You talk about liberating your country from Britannia, but when you kill people just because of their heritage, you're no different from the soldiers who massacred your people in Shinjuku! If you're going to throw anyone off the roof, throw me!"

That was it. The soldiers would drag her to another room, and she would tell them who she was and how Zero called her, and—

The guard slammed the handle of this weapon into the side of her face, knocking her to the ground. Kallen looked up and found herself peering down the gun barrel.

"Maybe," the man growled, "I'd rather kill you right now."

WWW

Hostage situations aren't all they're cracked up to be, Deithard decided as he sat in front of the lake, gazing at the hotel. They were portrayed as high tension events, but the truth was that they were just tedious. The two sides quickly fell into a stalemate as neither was willing to concede to the wishes of the other. This was a battle of attrition, nothing more.

Then his phone rang.

"Hello, Deithard speaking."

"Hello, Deithard," said the voice. "I understand you are covering the hotel jacking of Kawaguchi Lake, correct?

"I am."

"Tell me, do you ever tire of reporting the same old story of Britannia's sustained supremacy?"

Deithard paused. _That voice…_it sounded familiar, but… "Who is this?"

"I'll be sending you a file in exactly eight minutes," he replied, not answering. "I want it aired immediately."

"Wait, what is this about?" Deithard asked. "What kind of file are you talking about?"

"My…resurrection."

WWW

Kallen looked into the man's gun and wondered where her plan went screwy like that. _Oh well. I'll improvise._ She grabbed the gun pointed at her and pushed it away from her as he fired. She swept her feet under him, tripping him and slammed the gun handle into the face of another man before running for the door. She slammed the door behind her and saw—

Several more men with guns pointed at her.

"I surrender," she said quickly. "I'm a member of the resistance unit led by Zero. He has a message for your leader."

The members of the JLF blinked. "You're a Britannian," one noted. "And Zero's dead."

"No he's not," Kallen replied. "He just called me. Or do you believe everything the Britannian news tells you?"

They looked at her uneasily. "And you expect us to believe that the man who killed Clovis and supposedly _isn't_ dead employs Britannians."

"I am no Britannian," Kallen growled. "My name is Kallen Kouzuki. I'm Japanese."

The men looked at her and at each other. "Unless she's an assassin, we aren't risking anything by letting her speak with the general. But you're handing over that gun. Right now."

Kallen gave them the gun she had taken without argument. She had no intention of using it. She was trying to reason with them, and people seldom thought rationally when they were shot at. She never did.

The guards led her to General Kusakabe. He was the man in charge of the entire operation, and a member of the Japanese military before Britannia came.

"So," he said slowly. "You claim to work for Zero. But Zero died in Saitama, and there aren't many Japanese who frequent this hotel."

"I live a double life as a Britannian student," she explained. "Usually it comes in handy, at other times it just gets me into trouble. I do not know exactly what happened in Saitama, but Zero is alive. He contacted me just now, and I recognize his voice and speech patterns."

"And what did Zero want?"

"He wanted to speak with you," Kallen replied, pulling out her phone. "Shall I call him for you?"

"I chance to speak with Zero…or perhaps just an imposter," he mused. "If nothing else, it should be interesting."

Kallen called Zero and handed Kusakabe her phone.

"So tell me," the general said. "Are you really Zero?"

"Yes. I am."

"I was told that you died in Saitama. Or was that just a dramatized fake?"

"Britannian nobles are wretchedly confident of their victory, regardless of the circumstances," Zero replied. "Royalty even more so. Cornelia would not give up until she killed me, so I let her."

Kusukabe thought about that for a moment and laughed. "Indeed. So what is it that you wish to speak with me about?"

"You do not seem to be in a flexible situation," Zero noted. "I would like to meet with you in person. I believe I can help."

"Very well. When will you be arriving?"

"I'm already on my way," Zero replied. "My helicopter will be landing on the roof of the hotel shortly. It would be greatly appreciated if your men would not shoot it out of the sky."

General Kusakabe considered the situation. "Tell me, Zero," he said. "Did you really kill Prince Clovis?"

"He begged for his life with his dying breath."

The general laughed out loud. "I'll tell my men to let you pass."

WWW

Kallen was waiting on the roof when the helicopter landed. Not too long ago, it was more than she thought possible to have an old Glasgow, but since Zero appeared, they suddenly started having actual equipment.

Zero stepped out of the helicopter, and behind him Kallen saw Ohgi and some of the other members. _Zero…_he looked the same that he always had. Kallen had seen the footage of how a pilot with Zero's mask was peeled out of the wreckage of a knightmare, she saw the mask torn from the charred flesh.

And yet here he was, same cape, same mask, same confidence and surety. It was like Saitama never happened. And then there was Ohgi and the others. They were…wearing uniforms. Really nice uniforms.

"I take it you are here to escort me to the general," Zero surmised to the members of the JLF. "Q-1, you will stay here."

"What? But—"

"That is all," he said. He walked away with the general's men.

"So," Kallen said to Ohgi. "Nice uniform."

Ohgi grinned beneath his visor. "I know. As soon as they put it on the news about the hotel jacking, Zero called. All of a sudden, we have uniforms, better weapons, and a new hideout you wouldn't believe. I'll take you there afterwards, but right now we have work to do. We have to get the hostages to the rafts so when we set off the explosives, they can make it to the yacht."

"We have a yacht?"

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Kusakabe looked at the masked man in front of him as he sat with his men. "You indeed are a curiosity," he said. "You fight against Britannia, but you keep secrets from the Japanese. Before we discuss anything, I would have you show your face. If you are, as you say, among friends, you have nothing to hide."

"Of course," Zero replied. "I have nothing to hide at all." He took the mask off his face.

"What—what is this?" the general gasped. "You're not Japanese; you're Britannian!"

"Tell me, Kusakabe," Zero said slowly. "What are the Japanese? What makes them different from the Britannians? Is it their heritage, their ancestry? Or is it their heart? I believe that the defining attribute of the Japanese is their courage, their determination, their honor."

Kusakabe calmed down visibly, but he still looked distrustfully at Zero. "That's an exceptionally philosophical viewpoint."

"The same thing can be said of the Britannians," Zero continued. "They hide behind their wealth, their status, the sacrifices of others. They are defined by their arrogance, cruelty, and _rot_. When I look at you, General Kusakabe, I see a Britannian."

Kusakabe shouted as he drew his sword and jumped toward Zero, but Zero was faster.

"Die."

WWW

The Lancelot burst through the underground tunnel, firing his gun into the hotel's major support beam. As the entire structure began to sink, several explosives detonated. Every person in the vicinity watched earnestly, with one exception.

Deithard sat in his van, watching the recording of Zero's first public appearance. Every time he heard that man speak, Deithard was more and more convinced that it was the same man who called him. There was something about his voice, a more than human quality in the way he talked, that made Deithard sure of it.

He heard a number of screams and explosions from outside, but Deithard paid them no heed. He glanced at his watch impatiently. _Eight minutes. It's been eight minutes since you last called. _Then he received the file, a live feed to another camera. He quickly aired it on every broadcasting frequency he controlled.

_It's you,_ he thought. _It's really you._

Zero's visage came to life on screen as he spoke to the world.

"Brittanians," he called. "Fear not. I have rescued all the hostages, and will be returning them to you shortly. People of the world, fear us, seek us. We are the Order of the Black Knights. We are allies to the innocent and defenseless. The Japan Liberation Front hid behind unarmed hostages as cowards, and so I have paid them a coward's salary. The former Vicereine, Clovis, oppressed the weak and murdered the innocent, and received the same fate by my hand."

"I walk the path of carnage, but I will not allow the weak to die at the hands of the strong. When the powerful attack the powerless, we, the Black Knights, shall return, time and time again to judge them, regardless of the strength of our foe. You, without power, seek us, take shelter behind us. You, with power, you tyrants, you oppressors, you, the Britannian Empire as a whole, hunt us, fear us, flee before us. For I am _justice!"_

"And justice never dies."

WWW

a/n You know, it always surprises me how easy it is to write this story. With my first story, I got writer's block five times a chapter, but that's not happening here. Maybe it has something to do with the fifty plus reviews I've gotten so far. So yeah, Zero's back from the dead with a god-complex, and the Black Knights are formed. I couldn't do the hotel thing the same way it was in the canon, because one, that would be boring, and two, because Euphemia wasn't in the hotel, Zero couldn't use that to get Cornelia to cooperate. Also, Zero wouldn't want to reveal himself until he got on the big screen. It's just more dramatic that way.


	6. Chapter 6

Your Past, My Future

Chapter Six

a/n Are disclaimers necessary? If so, pretend I put one here.

Kallen wandered around the yacht, looking for her friends. Ohgi told her that the others had a way out before Cornelia's troops rescued the hostages, and for her cover's sake, Kallen had to pretend to be one of them. For the life of her, she couldn't understand why she had to live a double life, why she couldn't dedicate herself completely to the resistance like the others, but she had a position to maintain.

"Kallen!" Milly screamed. "Look, there's Kallen! She's alive?"

Kallen turned around to see Milly, Shirley, and Nina as they buried her in a group hug. "Oh, hello," she said awkwardly. "Um, you can let go of me now."

"Kallen, what happened to you?" Shirley asked. "I thought you were killed by terrorists."

"Oh. Well, about that," Kallen said. "They were going to throw me off the building, but it wasn't half an hour since the last time, so they decided to wait, and then they got involved with the whole Zero thing."

"Well, that was pretty lucky," Milly remarked. "But what were you thinking when you took on that terrorist? I thought you were sick."

"I started a new treatment recently," Kallen explained. "I guess it's working." It seemed like a reasonable excuse. No one could expect her to be seriously ill for years on end.

"And that's why you decided to pick a fight with a madman with a machine gun," Milly surmised.

"So I panicked," she said defensively.

"Most people panic the other way," Milly remarked.

"But…thank you," Nina whispered. "For…what you did back there."

"Don't mention it," she said dismissively. "I mean it, seriously, all of you, don't. I don't think people would understand, and this sort of thing can get out of hand really easily."

"I understand," Milly said. "We won't tell anyone. You can trust us."

It would have been a lot more convincing if she didn't wink.

WWW

Princess Cornelia looked at the Black Knights' announcement with controlled fury. "Get the hostages out safely," she ordered. "That is our top priority." It would be so easy to blow up the ship itself, but their recent rescue left the "Black Knights" with the moral high ground as it was, and to kill them with the hostages now would only help their cause.

"But I want everyone who comes off that boat to have his ID taken," she added. "I want anyone who shouldn't have been in the hotel arrested." That would be the easiest exit for Zero, to disguise themselves as civilians and leave with the hostages. _But no…_that would be too simple for someone like Zero.

Of course, she couldn't be sure that this was in fact the real Zero. Any terrorist would love to take the credit for regicide, and anyone could wear a mask. All it took was a big enough head.

Princess Cornelia thought about the events in Saitama. Whoever was controlling the resistance was a man of strategic brilliance, someone who managed to stay one step ahead of her the entire battle, as though he could read her mind. And yet, she was convinced that she had him cornered when the knightmare opened fire on the others and was immediately destroyed.

_Was that you who died in Saitama, Zero? Or did you plan that from the beginning?_ _Am I being played? _If the real Zero was here before her now, he would have another way out, just like before, just like always. _But how?_

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Kallen and her friends were shepherded off the boat by the Britannian soldiers. She looked over shoulder and wondered how Zero and the others were going to escape. She knew Zero had a plan. He always did, apparently, but would it kill him to let someone else know ahead of time?

"Right this way, please," a soldier said as they reached the shore. He directed them to a line of the other hostages who were being screened for their identification.

"But I don't have any ID!" a woman in front of them protested. "I left it my room with all my luggage! I didn't have time to take it with me when the terrorists attack! But you can just take my name, can't you? It should be on the hotel's guest list."

"The hotel is destroyed, along with its records," the man explained. "But if you could write down your information here and hold it in front of you, I could take your picture."

_Mug shots?_ Kallen wondered. _That's it? They're going to take our mug shots? _Yes, it was thorough, but not creative. Zero definitely would have seen though something this predictable. She took out her ID as the line moved forward when, behind her, the yacht exploded.

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"So you had a hidden, miniature, escape sub the whole time, and then you had to blow up the yacht for, what?" Kallen asked Tamaki as they walked toward the hideout for her first time. "Was it just for the dramatic exit?"

"I know!" Tamaki explained. "This Zero guy's pretty awesome, but this is money we're talking about! If he's so smart, why can't he win _without_ making a fortune go up in smoke every five minutes?"

Tamaki led her into the new hideout—and her eyes widened in surprise. It had two stories, a kitchen, a storage room full of firearms and explosives, a big screen television, and even a few prison cells. "No way! This…this is incredible! Zero must be loaded! How'd he afford a place like this?"

"I asked a corrupt Britannian noble," Zero said from behind her, sitting on a couch. "And he gave it to me."

"Kallen blinked. "That's it? You just asked him, and he gave it to you?"

Zero nodded. "It can't be traced," he assured her.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Tamaki mouth the word, _blackmail._

"And he gave you the yacht and the helicopter too? Kallen asked.

"Those certainly can't be traced." The helicopter blew up with the yacht. Helicopter, yacht, hotel, Zero liked to blow stuff up.

That made sense, but there was something else that was bothering her. "So, what exactly happened in Saitama? The whole world thought you were dead. How'd you do it?"

"That hardly matters," Zero replied. "At the hotel, I thought of seventeen different ways to rescue the hostages, but the only thing that matters is the results. And just like at the hotel, the results in Saitama were very, very good."

Kallen thought about it. His words had a cold, ruthless logic to them, even if he didn't bother to explain himself. "So what happens now?"

"Now," Zero said. "Now we, the Order of the Black Knights judge the world."

WWW

Lelouch glanced at Kallen as she sat, dead asleep, with her head on her desk. It had been more than a week since they had become the famous Heroes of Justice, but Lelouch seemed to be handling the sleepless nights better than she. Of course, if he hadn't slept during a history lecture in first period and hadn't taken a nap on the roof during gym, he'd be in the same position.

"Kallen, wake up," he said, shaking her slightly after the bell rang. She didn't budge. Lelouch noticed that the test they had taken lay almost completely blank on her desk. He sighed and filled out the appropriate bubbles when the teacher wasn't looking. "Wake up, Q-1," he said quietly.

"Yes, Zero!" she said, sitting up abruptly. She looked around, realizing where she was. "Wha…what happened?"

"You fell asleep during class," Lelouch explained.

"Uh, did I…say anything? she asked nervously.

"You sort of mumbled something when you woke up, but nothing coherent."

Lelouch left Kallen staring at her test with a confused expression on her face. Before the Black Knights had been a military force to rival Britannia, they had been defenders of the weak, the compilation of Zero's ideals and honor incarnate. At the time, it seemed like the perfect way to obtain the most support from the masses while attracting the least antagonism. And yet, as Zero looked back on it, he wasn't sure how much of it was true, and how much was a lie.

Zero wanted to clean up the mess that was the world's corruption, that was true. But he was, as always, concerned with the results. It was the end that mattered, and the persona of the Heroes of Justice was useful to that end. However, every time he told his knights that they were made for justice and not revenge, when he told them that they're purpose was for Japan's redemption and not Britannia's destruction, that was a lie.

And yet…

That was the whole point, wasn't it? Before he could create, he had to destroy. If he wanted to recreate the world, he would have to first destroy it, along with everything else. The first thing to go was himself, his conscience, his soul, _everything_ that would make him fit for the perfect world he sought to create, _everything_ that made him akin to the one he sought to destroy.

But was that really what he wanted? He never understood what he had sacrificed to achieve his ambitions until he had the chance to undo everything. And then, the last time he spoke with Suzaku at the Kururugi shrine, his friend told him, _the only way to atone for your lies is to make them become the truth._

That seemed rather hypocritical for Suzaku to say, considering that their meeting was a trap and he was just stalling for backup to arrive, but he seemed sincere when he said it, and although Suzaku was a superb pilot, he was a terrible liar.

It was an idea, an idea that only Suzaku's hopeless idealism could come up with. It wouldn't work, of course, because Zero needed those lies. And yet…until those lies became false, he could make them real. The Black Knights was just one of those lies. The other was his friendship with Suzaku.

"Milly," he said when he approached her in the hallway. "I was wondering if you could do a favor for me."

WWW

Two men walked into a bar. Jeremiah didn't pay attention to either. He sat with his shoulders slumped, staring through whatever toxic concoction his irrational mind had ordered. In ruin and disgrace, the former Britannian lord tried and failed to think about how far he had fallen.

"Jerimiah!" a familiar voice gasped. _Villeta._ "What are you doing here?"

"I'm trying to get stone dead drunk," he growled. "What does it look like?"

"Oh, it's just that I was looking for you somewhere else, and…never mind." Villetta sat down beside him. "I wanted to ask you a few questions about the Orange—" Jeremiah flinched visibly. "About the Kururugi incident. You said that you have no memory about what happened, right?"

Jeremiah downed what was possibly the most horrible thing the bartender had in one gulp. "Call me crazy if you want," he muttered. "Or call me a liar. It doesn't matter, but that's the truth."

"Actually, I do believe you," she said. "I didn't bother mentioning this earlier because I thought Zero was dead, but I suspect that he has a…a personal interest in Kururugi."

Jeremiah looked up from his drink. _Kururugi._ An honorary Britannian of unusual status for an Eleven. And yet…the boy was like no one he had ever met. Jeremiah tried to use him as a scapegoat, but the next time they met after he was released, Kururugi saved his life. There was no self righteousness, no revenge, no malice in him, just a value for human life.

"What makes you say that?"

"In his first public appearance, Zero tried to rescue him," Villetta explained. "Of course, that could just have been for the chance for him to insult Britannia and gain the trust of the Elevens, but something else happened to me earlier in Shinjuku. Just like you have no memory of what happened when you faced Zero, just like Bradley's men had no memory of what happened when Clovis was assassinated, I found myself in the middle of nowhere with my knightmare missing. My only clue of what happened was an ambulance worker, who thanked me profusely for stopping to give first aid to a lowly private."

"Do you know what that private's name was?" she asked in a low whisper. "Kururugi Suzaku."

WWW

"Hey, new guy!" Milly called. "I mean, Suzaku!"

Suzaku turned and gave the girl addressing him a friendly smile. There were plenty of people in Ashford who habitually talked about him behind his back, but so far she was the first person after Lelouch who spoke to him directly. "Hello," he said. "How are you?"

"I'm great," she said. "I'm Milly, by the way, if you don't already know. Milly Ashford, president of the student council. Hey, is it true that you and Lelouch are friends?"

"Uh, what makes you say that?" he asked evasively.

"Oh, Lelouch mentioned something about you two being old friends and that I should make you a member of the student council."

_He what?_ "Well, if Lelouch said so, it must be true."

"So you two have known each other for a long time?"

"For years," he said affirmatively.

"And you know all sorts of embarrassing stories about him that he won't tell us?"

"Countless."

"Then welcome aboard the student council."

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"So, what did you think?"

"About what?" Suzaku asked. "The student council meeting?" It was Suzku's first meeting as part of the council, and it was just over. "Well, Lelouch, I have to say it was…awkward. Not the most awkward meeting I've ever been in, but still really, really awkward. Who was that girl who looked like the was about to bolt out the window when I walked in?"

"Nina," Lelouch replied. "But she's like that with everyone."

"But that other girl accepted me right off the bat," Suzaku mused.

"That was Shirley," he explained. "She's just generally friendly."

Suzaku lost himself in thought before saying anything else. "So, whatever happened to our plan of pretending not to know each other here?"

"_Our_ plan?" Lelouch snorted. "That was _your_ plan, if I remember. When you told me your plan, I told you that you were an idiot, but that was your problem not mine. I guess what happened was that I realized that it _is_ my problem. But if you want to quit the student council, deny knowing me, and go through school as a persecuted recluse, then I suppose I can't really stop you, now can I?"

Suzaku let that sink in and laughed. "Lelouch? You're a good friend."

_We'll see how long that lasts._ "Don't mention it."

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Suzaku was an enigma. Before he died, his father, the prime minister of Japan, had a freedom or death approach to Britannia, and as his only son, it would make sense for Suzaku to feel honor bound to do the same. That's what Kallen would have done, anyway.

But Suzaku wasn't vengeful, he wasn't bitter against Britannia. He was just…helpful.

"Uh, Suzaku?" she asked in the student council meeting room. "What are you doing?"

"Dusting," he replied simply. "Why? Am I doing it wrong?"

"No, I mean…never mind."

Come to think of it, Lelouch was something of an enigma himself, and the two were apparently friends. Kallen heard the two of them talking together some time earlier, and the young Britannian had little love for Britannia. When she questioned him about it, he told her some horrible story about how his father shielded his mother's murderer by crippling his sister, but in retrospect, Kallen had no idea if she could trust him.

There was something false about Lelouch, and he said so himself that he'd rather have lies told about him than the truth. That he hated Britannia seemed real enough, but she had no excuse to pry into his motivation, and he had no reason to tell her the truth.

"Hey, Suzaku? You and Lelouch are old friends, right?"

"Oh yeah. We go way back."

"So is it true what he said about how his sister ended up in a wheelchair and his mother in a, uh, coffin?"

Suzaku froze. "He told you about that?" he said softly. "Wow. He doesn't tell anyone about that. You must mean a lot to him."

_Could you not put it like that?_ "But it's true? His mother was killed and his father framed terrorists just so he wouldn't have to deal with it?"

Suzaku's eyes widened. "He's blaming his father for it now? That's basically true, but I think his father's involvement is only speculation. Well, I hope it is. I've barely seen him since the end of the war seven years ago, so he might have figured something out since."

"Wait, Lelouch's been here before the war?" Kallen asked. "But why? I thought that—"

"You know what?" Suzaku asked suddenly. "I shouldn't be talking about this. This is something that you should probably be asking him."

"Fine, fine, forget I said anything," Kallen said dismissively. "But I have one more question."

"What?"

"You," she said. "You were born Japanese, you're legally an Eleven, and you've become an Honorary Britannian. So what do you call yourself?"

"Well, I figure it doesn't really matter," Suzaku said thoughtfully. "Some people call me an Eleven because to them that's what I am, and there's not much point to get offended by them. Other people call me that as an insult and are trying to offend me, so then there's even less reason to be offended by them."

"But what do _you_ call yourself?"

"I call myself Suzaku."

WWW

Kallen would never forget the night she fell in love.

The Order of the Black Knights was growing exponentially. There was something awesomely sublime about being a defender of justice, a sort of super human heroism that drew people to their cause. Their growth wasn't just in numbers, either. They started getting support from the Kyoto group, and that meant a lot more than funds.

It meant weapons.

Kallen walked down the row of Burai knightmare frames. They seemed a lot like her old, second hand Glasgow, but there was nothing second hand or old about these Burai. They were brand new and outmatched what she was used to by a considerable amount.

Then she saw what was possibly the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen. It was a knightmare like the Burai, but the comparison alone was a joke, like saying that a diamond was like a piece of coal. The frame was painted dark red, but Kallen's eyes were drawn to its silver claw. Looking at its lopsided form, she knew that this knightmare wasn't made as a decoration or a parade piece, it wasn't designed for elegance, it was designed for destruction, for fear.

"That's the Guren Mk-II," said a voice behind her.

"Oh, Zero," she said, startled. "It's pretty incredible. I've never seen anything like it."

"You'll be seeing a lot of it in the future," he said, tossing her something.

She looked at what he gave her. It was a key, shaped like a red and white feather. "W-what is this?"

"It's yours," Zero replied.

"Wha-mine?" she asked, looking at the Guren in a new light. "But shouldn't you be the one who…"

"Tell me," Zero said. "Have you ever faced one of the Knights of the Rounds?"

"The emperor's personal knights?" she asked. "No, of course not."

"The main difference between them and you is not skill, but equipment. In a decent knightmare frame, you could hold your own against almost any of them. I am the commander, but you are our best pilot. That's why the Guren is yours."

Kallen's eyes widened. He didn't say it like a compliment, he said it like a fact. "Have _you_ ever faced the Knights of the Rounds?"

"I expect you to familiarize yourself with the manual," Zero said before leaving. "You'll need it."

Zero left her alone with the Guren, _her_ Guren, because her skills as a pilot were on par with the best in the world. She looked at the knightmare and the key Zero had given her.

_I think I'm in love._

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"Zero!" Ohgi called. "I need to speak with you."

Zero saw Ohgi running up to him holding small file. "What is it?"

"I've received some…interesting information, from someone who claims to be interested in joining the Order," he said, handing Zero the file. "I don't personally trust him, but that's your decision."

Zero looked at the file. _Deithard? _He was, besides Lelouch, the only Britannian to join the Black Knights, but he was…not technically trustworthy, but loyal. True, Deithard had, in the end, betrayed him, but so had all the Black Knights. The information Deithard gave them talked about an attack Britannia was planning on the JLF in Narita.

_Narita._

Narita had given Zero the reputation as a man of miracles, it had been his first victory, not just as defenders of the weak, but in a war. And…_Cornelia._ He had come so close to capturing the Second Princess of Britannia that time, but one thing had gotten in his way.

Or, rather, one person.

"Ohgi, these are some supplies we'll be needing," he said, scribbling a list down on a piece of paper. "We'll be leaving at this time tomorrow." _And right now, I need to sabotage someone._

Zero left the hideout and called an old friend. "Hey, Suzaku!" he said friendlily, treacherously. "I was wondering if you would mind having tea with Nunnally and me tomorrow."

_Throughout this entire war, you have always been in my way, _Zero thought. _But this time, I think it's better if you stayed home sick._

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a/n Some people have been asking me why Cornelia didn't blow the hotel to smithereens when she had the chance. Without Euphie there, she would be willing, but that was still a last resort thing, and she tried to get everyone out safely first. That's the same reason she didn't blow up Zero's boat afterwards, besides, she had the boat surrounded, so she wouldn't have had to make a move of desperation.

You know, I used to think that Suzaku was hopelessly idealistic, that it was, although admirable, foolish to try to change the world the way he was trying to do it. Then I saw a movie about Gandhi. _He_ managed to change the world, and he did it without high tech weaponry, which is pretty awesome.

And now that I've got nothing left to say, there's something I want to rant about. In the anime, remember how they found out about the hotel jacking? On a whim, someone turned on the TV, which just _happened_ to be on the right channel, at the right time, to tell them something poignant to their lives. I've been known to watch TV for hours on end, and do you know how often I've actually seen something _important?_ I honestly don't think it's happened yet. Sorry, that's just something that's been bothering me.


	7. Chapter 7

Your Past, My Future

Chapter Seven

a/n I do not own Code Geass.

Lelouch saw his friend walk down the path to his house. "Hey, Suzaku," he called. "You made it."

Suzaku smiled at him. He had an easy smile, one that was neither forced nor one of convenience. Lelouch smiled like that every now and then, but it wasn't frequent. "Of course I made it," he said. "I wouldn't miss it for anything. Hey, Nunnally. It's good to see you."

"Hello, Suzaku," she said with a smile. She had an easy smile too, devoid of malice or guile. Lelouch wondered if he was the only false, treacherous liar among them. Probably, until his best friend snapped and showed his true colors.

He got up to fetch the tea. He was going to lay a trap for Her Royal Ruthlessness later on, and his plans were always formulated perfectly, followed through without a flaw, with one exception only, and that exception now sat making small talk with his little sister.

Lelouch poured three cups of tea, and picked out something special for his old friend. If he used too little, Suzaku would walk away with an upset stomach and shrug it off. If he used too much, Suzaku would keel over dead at Nunnally's feet, and his sister, Lelouch was sure, wouldn't appreciate it.

Lelouch toyed with the idea of using his Geass to make Suzaku betray Cornelia at the right moment, but he decided against it. He saw what happened to Orange, he saw what an unexplainable failure could do to someone, he saw to what depths a man could sink to redeem himself after that sort of thing, and Lelouch would not do that to Suzaku. Yet.

Lelouch returned with the tray of tea and distributed the cups. Suzaku picked up his and was about to take a sip when he stopped. "What's wrong?" Suzaku asked.

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"You were staring at me just now," Suzaku said.

"I was?" Lelouch asked. "Sorry. I must have zoned out. By the way, how's work treating you?"

"Pretty good," he said, taking a sip. "Right now I'm basically a mechanic working for a mad scientist. It's usually interesting."

WWW

The Japan Liberation Front was a horde of idiots, sloppy, crude, inefficient. The same could not be said of the Black Knights. Their work as Heroes of Justice served to attract public support, but more than that, it was practice. People could say what they liked about the Order, that they were two faced terrorists, or that they were nothing more than an illegitimate police force that couldn't be bribed, but _no one_ could say that they were inefficient.

Zero saw to that.

He led then carefully through the mountain pass, forbidding the use of any communication that could be traced, ensuring—

His cell phone started ringing. "Shirley?" he answered. "What is it?"

"Oh, nothing Lulu," she said. "I just...wanted to see how you were doing." She sounded nervous for some reason.

"I'm fine," he said, a bit faster than he wanted to. "I'm just busy with something right now."

"Something? Or someone?"

"What?"

"Ah, sorry, Lulu, I—I didn't mean to—it's just that—are you avoiding me?"

"Am I…what? That's ridiculous, Shirley. I've just been…really busy recently." That excuse sounded lame, even to him. "But if it really bothers you, then we can get together and do something later—anything. Just...not right now."

"Really?" she asked excitedly. "Well, my dad sent me some tickets for a concert next Saturday, well, I mean…"

"Sure. Right. Whatever. I have to go now. Later." He hung up quickly.

_Are you avoiding me_?

Yes, he was. Every time he saw his cheerful, loving friend, he remembered her shot, lying on the floor, bleeding out her life and confessing her love for him. And why? What reason had she to love him? It never did her a shred of good. Every now and then, he toyed with the idea of using his Geass to make her fall in love with someone who didn't have plans involving immersing the world in war and carnage, but he never did.

It would have been so much easier if she hated him. Hatred he could handle. Hatred was…familiar. He was practically raised in it. Suzaku hated him after he found out what he did. After the Second Battle of Tokyo, Zero was hated by the Britannian Empire, the Black Knights, and practically the entire world. That was the result, to some degree or another, whenever people found out who he really was.

And yet, Shirley _didn't_ hate him. She loved him. Despite all reason and logic, she loved him, even though she had every reason not to, especially after he killed her—

He dialed quickly his cell phone.

"Lulu? What is it?"

"Shirley! Your father. Does he have a work phone?"

"A…what? Why? Do you need to talk to him?"

"Yes. What's his phone number?"

"Hold on, let me get it. What do you need to talk to him about?"

"It doesn't matter! Just tell me his number, woman!"

"Alright, alright!" She gave him her father's phone number. "But what is this about, anyway?" She was told that men used to ask a father's permission before dating his daughter, back when it was called courting, and Lelouch was admittedly a _very_ classy man, but…

"It's for a—"screw the believable lie—"school project," he said. "But anyway, I have to go now."

Lelouch hung up before she could say anything else and thought about what he could say to her father. He knew that he worked nearby Narita. Originally, he died in a landslide at this battle, but before his funeral, Zero was never really aware that he existed.

"Hello?" he asked, feigning a panicked voice. "Is this the next of kin of Shirley Fenette?"

"Yes," the man said carefully. "I'm her father. Why?"

"Mr. Fenette, I have some bad news. I'm afraid your daughter was hit by a car."

"What?" he shrieked. "But—when? Is she okay?"

"It doesn't look good," Lelouch replied, playing on his paternal fears. "She's in critical condition in the St. Alfred's Hospital. How long will it take you to get here?"

"Well, if I leave work now, I could get there in about an hour."

Lelouch paused as though doubtful. "Do hurry, sir. She won't last much longer."

Hopefully, he would be gone before the battle started. Zero gave the Black Knights the signal to go to the next point, and he started thinking about Shirley. Some people thought of emotional attachments as weakness, but Zero didn't. It was just the opposite; it gave him purpose. Knowledge, power, without purpose, was meaningless, but with every attachment, every purpose he gained a wall of what he could not allow to happen.

Zero's purpose was simple. He had to destroy the Britannian Empire and protect Nunnally. Could he do that? Yes. But could he destroy the Britannian Empire, protect Nunnally, and also protect Shirley, Kallen, C.C., Euphie, Suzaku, Ohgi, Tamaki, and every other hapless fool he cared about? He doubted it. And so he tried to push those around him away, because even _he_ couldn't save everyone, and so he couldn't afford to let anyone close to him.

But that day, when he saw Shirley dying in a pool of her own blood, when Kallen lost to Xinke and was captured by Britannia, when C.C. lost her memories…he did what he could to keep his distance from them, but it didn't work. None of it worked.

He found a small cabin which served as an outpost for sentries of the JLF and went inside. He used his Geass on the guards and sat down and waited until he saw C.C.

"You know," he said. "One of these days, you're going to have to tell me how you travel so easily. You don't own a car or anything, and none of the Black Knights brought you."

"You over think things," she replied. "And you are far too cautious. I don't fear for my own life; I only fear for yours. I don't have your restrictions. Why? Did you want me to stay at home?"

"Actually, I'm glad you came," he confessed. "The first Battle of Narita ended in a stalemate, and if you hadn't shown up, I could have died."

"Do you think that that sort of thing is going to happen again?"

Zero shook his head. "Perhaps. I hope not. I can't expect my opponent to make the same moves because I have not made the same moves. I hoped that I could keep things the same until my decisive victory, but I've already changed too much to rely on my memories. At the hotel, Kallen wasn't even supposed to be there, and she was, and Princess Euphemia was there last time, but she wasn't."

"Is that really that significant?" C.C. asked.

"Possibly. All the hostages were removed safely, but Nina never came in contact with the princess, so she's less likely to go made with vengeance should Euphie die. That should be a good thing, but its implications are too many to calculate. And there's still the matter of whether the Emperor has my same advantage."

"I told you everything I know," C.C. said.

"You told me that the Emperor _probably_ isn't from the future. 'Probably' isn't a very precise term. 'Probably' is even less useful than knowing that he definitely _is_ from the future. I can't plan for a 'probably.'"

"I've spoken with your mother a few times," C.C. replied. "She was on the Sword of Akasha in your timeline, and so was I. I'm not from the future, she's not from the future, and Suzaku's not from the future. By these statistics, your father has a twenty five percent chance of being from the future. Thus, he _probably_ isn't."

"And like I said, witch, that doesn't help."

C.C. sighed and cast her eyes upon the snowy mountains and the clouds. "Do you think your friend Suzaku will be joining us today?"

"I doubt it," Zero replied. "I had him over today for tea and poison, and it should have set in by now. Even if he's too stubborn to go home, he won't be fighting today. Not unless he's a complete idiot with a death wish."

WWW

"Oh, man, I think I'm going to be sick."

Suzaku sat doubled over in pain. Something in his stomach was strongly disagreeing with him. He felt cold, sweaty, and dizzy at the same time.

"You don't look well," Cecile agreed. "Maybe you should take the rest of the day off."

"Not well?" Lloyd laughed. "You look downright horrible!"

Cecile gave Lloyd a withering look, which he completely ignored. "Do you think it was something you ate?"

"I don't know," he admitted. "The only weird thing I ate recently was—" Cecile's jelly, but Suzaku didn't want to say that—"I didn't eat anything weird. But still, a lot of kids at school don't like me because I'm an Eleven, so this could be just a bad joke."

"Well, if it's a joke, I'm certainly not laughing," Cecile replied. "I think I have something for upset stomachs. Do you want me to get it for you?"

"No, I'm fine," Suzaku protested. "I'll just—" throw up—"walk it off."

WWW

When they reached the final point of their journey, the Black Knights started laying out excavators. "So what's all this digging about, anyway?" asked Tamaki. "Are we making a hot spring or something?"

"No," said Zero. "We are…modifying the environment for battle."

"Figures," Inoue muttered. "So who are we fighting today?"

"Britannia," he said simply. "By the end of today, Princess Cornelia will be in our custody."

Kallen's head jolted forward. She knew that Zero was ambitious, but Cornelia wasn't chicken feed. She was ruthless, intelligent, and one of the better pilots in Britannia. And if she was backed by an entire army, capturing her would be impossible…so if anyone could do it, it would be Zero.

"We're going to do _what_?" Tamaki asked. "I don't suppose you could have mentioned that beforehand."

_If he had would anyone have come?_ Kallen thought dryly. This sort of thing would be even more dangerous than when they rescued Suzaku. _That _time, Zero had told them before what they were going to do, and with the exception of her and Ohgi, no one had shown up.

"But the Japan Liberation Front is right here," Ohgi said. "We're just going to back them up." He glanced at Zero hopefully. "Right?"

"Ohgi, do you not trust me?" Zero asked.

"What? Of course I do!" Ohgi exclaimed. "I'm the one who asked you to be our leader in the first place."

"If you want me to lead you, then I want you to trust me."

"Well, yeah, but—"

"What the heck is that!" Tamaki yelled.

Zero glanced at the aircraft dropping knightmare frames all around them. "That," he said, "is the begging of the end."

"You can say that again," Tamaki screamed. "_Our_ end. Are you trying to get us killed, or are you just crazy?"

"Hold on," Kallen interrupted. "Zero wouldn't lead us here if he didn't have a plan."

"That's what he always says!" Tamaki protested. "But look around you! We're completely surrounded! Does it even matter to you that we're all going to die, or are we just pawns in your game?"

"Of course you are just pawns in my game."

"What?"

"Just like I am a pawn in yours," Zero continued. "You follow me because you need my help to win your game, and I lead you because with your help, we can overcome our foe. It will take a miracle to escape from here alive, and a greater one to escape with the captive princess in tow, but every savior requires a miracle to prove himself."

"Follow me today, and I will give you that miracle of salvation. Follow me tomorrow, and we will give that miracle to the world. But if you doubt me, if you think that you can survive without my help, then someone, please, shoot me now, because if I do not have your absolute trust, then I cannot lead you. If you do not believe in me, I cannot save you."

The Black Knights hesitated, looked to the approaching Britannian forces, backed down, and ultimately submitted. Zero asked for trust, but Kallen recognized that what the Black Knights gave him wasn't trust. The Black Knights were desperate, and they would hate him for it, but they would follow him in desperation.

"Good," Zero said. "Thank you. Q-1? Do it now!"

Kallen grabbed an excavator with her Guren's silver claw and channeled energy through it. Moments later, the earth itself shook with her fury and crumbled, falling into a rock slide into the Britannian military.

The battle between Britannia and the JLF had already started, but the Black Knights' role in the fight was just beginning.

WWW

The earth shook beneath her. Cornelia wasn't caught in the landslide, but she still felt the ground tremble.

"What the—what just happened?" she demanded.

"Your Highness! We've lost both Alex's and Darlton's battalions!" Guilford replied.

For a rockslide to happen right here, right now, it couldn't be a coincidence. "Find Alex and Darlton. I want to know exactly _what_ we have left and what we have to work with."

"Yes, your Highness, but we've lost the entire eastern flank. I think it would be wise for you to withdraw."

"If I'm too scared to risk my life in this fight, I have no business winning," she snapped. "Even with this landslide, we have the JLF cornered. If we win here, then the only enemy left in the country is the Black Knights."

"Yes, your Highness," Guilford replied dutifully. A pause. "From Alex's and Darlton's battalions, we've suffering an eighty percent casualty rating."

"What?" So few…the line of command would be completely obliterated, the enemy could break through!

"And there's more," Guilford continued. "Karius's unit saw an enemy unit of Burai approaching, but they're not JLF. He believes them to be the Black Knights.

_Zero!_ Yes, the landslide had Zero's name all over it. And yet…from what she knew of the Black Knights, they were well organized, yes, but not well funded. They never had more than machine guns and an old Glasgow before. They apparently got a decent sponsor, and Zero wasn't a fool to be trifled with…but to have all my enemies right here…

It was too good a chance to pass up. Cornelia still hadn't forgiven Zero for the way he humiliated her in Saitama and Kawaguchi, and she would have her revenge. There were rumors that she had sworn to drink Zero's blood. That was utterly ridiculous and rather disgusting. Some people whispered that she intended to leave bits of Zero in every settlement in Area Eleven. That wasn't true either, but the idea had some merit.

"Right," she decided. "Have our men regroup. We'll face Zero's little pets head on."

_If nothing else, Zero, I will kill you this day. And _this_ time, I'll make sure it sticks._

WWW

Zero led the Black Knights down the mountain. "Remember," he told them, "our objective is to find and capture Princess Cornelia."

The Burai cut through the confused, scattered Britannian forces they found with ease until they ran into the Purist unit.

"ZERO!" Jeremiah roared. "Is that you? I, Lord Jeremiah Gottwald, challenge you to fight me, right now!"

One day, when he knew who Zero was and what he fought for, Jeremiah would become one of his most ardent supporters. But right now, he was just in the way. "So," Zero replied patronizingly. "You're still here. Sorry, but I have an engagement with her Imperial Majesty, and I don't have time for your nonsense, _Orange_."

C.C. shifted uncomfortably in the cramped space in Zero's Burai. "Aren't you unnecessarily provoking him?"

"MY NAME'S NOT ORANGE!"

"Of course not," Zero replied calmly as Kallen intercepted Jeremiah's charge. "People behave foolishly when upset, and this man is easy to upset." The Guren's silver claw latched onto the Sutherland's head, utterly destroying the knightmare. "You see?"

"Huh. Have I mentioned that it is horribly cramped in here?"

"You may have," Zero replied nonchalantly. "In a few weeks, I hope to obtain the Gawain. It's a two seater and can fly."

"Great," she muttered. "I'll hold my breath."

"Don't complain," he said. "You're the one who wanted to protect me." He turned on his communicator. "Q-1, finish off the rest, and meet up with us at point 2-F. Everyone else, follow me."

"So, are you sure this is how I saved your life last time?" C.C. asked.

"To an extent, C.C. Last time you relied a great deal on luck, which I find entirely too fickle."

They met more resistance, but nothing overwhelming. Cornelia didn't have the reinforcements to crush them, and the Britannian military was unaccustomed to anything else. But this was something new to the Black Knights as well. For them, this wasn't just war, it was the offensive, and as members of a resistence, they could fight like madmen when backed into a corner, but to take a step forward was to take a step into the unknown.

Zero realized this when they were pinned behind the rocks with a squad of Sutherlands shooting at them. But of course, this is the test. If we win, we're true soldiers. If we die, we never would have amounted to anything anyway.

"Zero!" called Ohgi. "Do you think we should call Kallen for support?"

"No," Zero replied. "If she leaves her position, we fail our objective."

"So what do we do? Do you have a plan?"

"I always do," Zero replied, opening his hatch. "Good luck, C.C." he said, lowering the witch to the ground.

"You owe me for this," she muttered, walking calmly towards the enemy with the serenity that only an immortal could manage.

The Sutherlands stopped firing and looked at the solitary, unarmed girl approaching them. "Halt!" one ordered. "Are you trying to surrender?"

_Yeah, that will be the day,_ C.C. thought, pressing her hand against the knightmare frame's cold steel. "I hope Zero doesn't get into the habit of making me do this."

The pilot stood, paralyzed, as the darkest moments of his past came back to haunt him.

"Sir?" one of this comrades asked. "Sir, what's going on? Answer me! Are you alright?"

C.C. cut the connection. The pilot screamed as he gained control of his limbs even though the nightmare still hadn't left him.

"Now!" ordered Zero, using the maddened, wild firing pilot as a distraction. The Black Knights cut through the confused Britannians like butter.

"Zero," Ohgi said. "I'm picking up a reading. Princess Cornelia's honor guard met some members of the JLF, and the princess separated from the rest of her troops."

Zero took a moment to calculate this. "C.C., how long can you keep this up?"

"This isn't as difficult as it looks," she replied calmly, despite having come very close several times to have an armor piercing round go through her skull. "It's not like this is going to kill me or anything."

"N formation," Lelouch ordered. "Stay here and draw away as much of the enemy's forces as possible. Ohgi, Tamaki, come with me."

Lelouch had seen an alternative future, and though his foreknowledge was imprecise at best, he retained one major advantage: he knew whom he was fighting. He knew his enemy, he knew Cornelia. He knew what she was thinking, what mattered to her, _what she would do. _

He found Cornelia in a ravine, facing off against Kallen in her invincible Guren Mk-II. In the entire mountain side, this was the most ideal spot for an ambush. Cornelia had probably planned to use it as such, but, unfortunately for her, so had Zero.

"Princess Cornelia li Britannia!" Zero called out. "This is truly an honor. Shall I ask for your surrender, or shall I merely have you forcibly torn from your knightmare?"

"Zero—you…" she growled. "You will pay for underestimating me!"

Her Gloucester charged at Kallen, completely oblivious to what she was getting into. The Guren dodged her every strike, out maneuvered her at every step, and limb after torn off limb, overpowered her. Zero's plan was being executed perfectly, until the Lancelot, with a falcon's grace and an ox's subtlety, blasted through the ravine and stood at Her Majesty's side.

_Impossible!_ But—_Suzaku!_ He was supposed to be sick. From what Lelouch gave him, _walking_ would make him queasy. He was in no state to fight, unless…come to think of it, the description "complete idiot with a death wish" fit Suzaku like a glove.

But no matter. Fighting or not, he was still sick, and that should give Kallen the advantage she needed, and even though Suzaku had more experience with the Lancelot than Kallen with the Guren, Zero knew his fighting style enough to make up the difference.

However…

The fate of the world could very well depend on the outcome of this battle. There was no reason to fight fair.

WWW

The Lancelot had one purpose, and that was to fight. Suzaku had one purpose, to pilot the Lancelot. Out of everyone who had tried, Suzaku was the only one who could make it work. Sick or not, if he could make a difference in this battle, if he could save someone, he would.

He was sick and wanted to throw up, but that was nothing he hadn't suffered before—at home in bed, admittedly, but Princess Euphemia asked him to save her sister, and even if it killed him, he wouldn't let her down.

He used his VARIS rifle to blast his way through the ruble left from the landslide. The motion made his upset stomach try to rebel against him, but not yet. He forced his sweating, shivering hands to steady the Lancelot controls—just for a little bit longer.

"Princess Cornelia! Are you alright?" he asked.

"You're my back up?" she asked incredulously. "What a terrible irony. No matter. Be careful with the red one. He's fast."

"Yes, your Highness."

"Kururugi Suzaku," came Zero's voice. But he didn't speak on the open air, he used the Lancelot's private frequency. "How kind of you to join us."

"Zero!"

"Last time we spoke, Kururugi, I saved your life, because I knew you were innocent. But in the end, you submitted yourself to trial, because you knew in your heart, you were guilty."

"But I…I didn't kill Prince Clovis! You did!"

"I'm not speaking of Prince Clovis, Kururugi. I'm speaking of you. You put on a show of flawless obedience, you pretend to care so much about human life, but in the end, you're just a murderer, _patricide!_"

The last word came out as drop of venom, the poison that had been consuming him for years. As if on signal, the red knightmare came at him, unbelievably fast.

"All these years, Suzaku, you've been risking your life, trying to get yourself killed in atonement for your endless sins. You're not a hero, you're a liar and a fool who seeks to die."

"I—I had to!" Suzaku protested, trying fruitlessly to block the red knightmare's attacks.

"Yes," Zero sneered. "To bring peace to your country, to save it from annihilation. You rationalize your crimes to yourself, but can you explain them to your father? Because he's waiting for you, I assure you. Him, and the countless others who've died in the war you've cheated them of, and the untold millions who've died in poverty and squalor from Britannia's oppression."

"They're waiting for you, Suzaku. After all these years, their blood still cries out for justice."

Suzaku stood at the edge of a cliff. His Maser sword had already been disintegrated, and he raised his VARIS rifle to score at least one hit on his opponent. The red knightmare knocked the rifle downward, destroying the earth beneath them. The cliff Suzaku was standing on crumbled, and the Lancelot plummeted.

The prototype he piloted lay broken on the hard ground. He waited for the Black Knights to come down, to finish him off as he lay defenseless, but no one came. _They will take my honor, my victory, but not my life. How cruel._

Suzaku opened the Lancelot's hatch, got out, and finally, managed to throw up.

WWW

Kallen pulled Cornelia out of her knightmare and held her weak, helpless form in her iron grip. At first, their mission seemed so impossible, but now, it seemed too easy. That was Zero's work, that was the miracle he had given them. She looked at the man who had given them this victory, and smiled.

"All units," Zero ordered. "Our mission is accomplished. I'm ordering a withdraw."

"Hey, Zero," Kallen said. "It's only been a few weeks since Clovis died. At this rate, the emperor will run out of children. What will w do then?"

"After than…we kill the emperor. And we'll work it out from there."

The escaped in the chaos from the fleeing members of the JLF. The regrouped with the rest of the Black Knights, and Zero reviewed the casualties. Surprisingly, there were very few. They lost a lot of Burai, and a few were shot, but most of them got out alive.

"And C.C., the girl with green hair," Zero said. "What happened to her?"

"Your friend who was with you in your Burai?" Minami asked. "I'm sorry, Zero, but…she's dead."

"Is that so?" Zero replied calmly. "What happened?"

"Well, she was in the middle of the battle," Minami explained nervously. "She was shot by an enemy Sutherland, and then she was crushed by one."

"Did you retrieve her body?" Zero asked.

"Did you want us to?" he asked. "I'm sorry, but we didn't. Uh, if you don't mind me asking, Zero, who was she?"

"An accomplice. She'll turn up in a few days."

Accomplice? Friend? Kallen wished she could say something, but it didn't help that she never even saw this girl.

Zero started laughing. He laughed a cold, cynical laugh. "Enough of this," he said. "It's time we leave. We'll be entertaining royalty tonight, and we must prepare a prison cell fit for a princess."

WWW

Suzaku was never afraid of death. Not his own anyway. Until today, he didn't know he was afraid of anything, but he was now. He was afraid of Zero.

It wasn't that Zero defeated him, Suzaku could handle that. What got to him was the way Zero knew him so completely, how he could stir up all of Suzaku's darkest sins and slam them in his face. How did he know what happened to his father? How did he even know he was piloting the Lancelot, for that matter?

"Kururugi Suzaku. You have the look of someone actively tormenting himself."

"Sir Guilford!"

"I saw the same look in the mirror fifteen minutes ago."

"Ah—I'm…sorry, sir. It's all my fault."

The knight gave him a look of sheer condescension. "Are all Elevens so conceited?" he asked. "This is not your fight, Kururugi. It is not your loss, your responsibility. It's not your _shame_."

"Princess Euphemia gave me the order to save her sister," he protested. "I failed. That's shame enough."

"You faced an enemy stronger than yourself, and you lost. Do you find shame in that, Kururugi? Protecting Princess Cornelia wasn't your responsibility, it was mine."

"But I could have won! If I…" _If I wasn't sick, if Zero didn't bring up my father's murder…but those were excuses, nothing more. If I…_"were someone else."

Guilford laughed. "If only it were so easy." He paused for a moment. "Do you ever wish that the past would just stay dead?"

Suzaku's head jerked up. "Yes. Now more than ever."

"So it happened to you, too?"

"What do you mean?"

"I've spoken with some of the other pilots, and there's a recurring story. In the middle of the battle, I…started hallucinating. I saw things…people who have died that I wish for all the world would just stay dead. When the vision ceased…I had lost control of my knightmare, lost control of myself. Is that how you lost to Zero?"

Suzaku shook his head. "When I got there, Zero started talking to me, and like a fool I listened to him. He…he told me things about myself, secrets that I've never told another living soul, sins that I've hoped were long forgotten. I was…I was so lost, I could barely fight back as one of his Black Knights destroyed me. And now…they have Princess Cornelia."

"And that makes Princess Euphemia the new viceroy," Guilford said. "Those were Cornelia's last orders, to protect Euphemia."

"With Euphemia as the new viceroy…" Suzaku mused. "I think she'll do a great job. Don't you?"

Guilford shook his head. "No."

WWW

It was a few days after the battle of Narita that he got the phone call.

"Hello? Is this Zero?"

He was just on his way to a meeting with the Black Knights. "It is. Who's speaking?"

"General Tatewaki Katase, of the Japan Liberation Front. I'd like to thank you for your assistance at Narita."

"You're welcome."

"Would you be interested in joining forces?," Katase suggested. "Dividing ourselves only benefits Britannia."

"You're free to join the Order of the Black Knights any time you like."

Katase didn't laugh. "Considering the difference in numbers and resources, Zero, it would be more prudent for you to join us."

"I can be a part of no organization I am not the head of," Zero replied. "Please forgive a proud man for his desire for independence."

"An alliance then."

"Sounds intriguing," Zero admitted. "What's the catch?"

"The catch? The catch is you, Zero. We can't tell whose side you are on, and so we cannot entirely trust you. All of us would have died in Narita if you had not intervened, but many more would have survived if you contacted us beforehand. And then there was the matter at Kawaguchi Lake."

"And what must I do to prove my intentions?"

"I believe that you managed to capture the former viceroy, Cornelia. If you are indeed an enemy of Britannia, there is nothing you can do to her that we would not do, so much more willingly."

Zero considered the proposition. He realized that the only times he had been in contact with the leader of the JLF, it was when Katase was in mortal peril. The man was, apparently, a shrewd leader otherwise. He would have had to be, to have gotten as far as he did. And yet, something still didn't make sense.

"Who gave you this number?"

"During our evacuation of Narita, we found a girl who cannot die. She's not Japanese, but she claims to know you."

_C.C.!_ "And I suppose she sold you my phone number in exchange for a box of pizza."

"You keep strange company, Zero."

_You have no idea._ "Thank you for retrieving her. I was starting to worry that Britannia had captured her."

"We will always accept your help should you offer it, Zero, and should you require ours, we always pay our debts. But if you want our trust, then you'll have to earn it. And in exchange, we will gladly return your peculiar friend."

"So C.C. and Cornelia become peace offerings between our organizations," Zero summarized.

"If you like to see it that way."

"It wasn't too long ago that _I_ was a peace offering in such an exchange. It ended in betrayal, but only because one of the organizations was led by a cold-blooded, double crossing, treacherous snake." _It runs in the family._ "However, you're organization lost more men than mine. It does seem fair for you to have the greater share of the spoils. I'll have to think about it."

_Fools._ This was a two player game. There was no room for a third party. The JLF was nothing more than a relic from the past. It had no place in the future Zero was creating. They would dissolve and become part of the Order.

He entered the hideout and began the meeting.

"First of all," he said. "What is the status of our prisoner?"

"She remains under twenty four hour surveillance," Ohgi reported. "She behaved suspiciously three times so far, and was tranquilized each time. Her food is being drugged, leaving her generally lethargic."

"Good. Now we will begin the next stage in our operation."

"Are we going to go after the new viceroy?" Kallen suggested. "Or would that be too predictable?"

"That would be too unnecessary," Zero replied. "Remember, when Clovis died, he was only replaced by someone more competent. If we remove Princess Euphemia, it will be the same. Princess Euphemia is a puppet, nothing more. It would be so much more effective to kill the puppeteer while his hands are occupied with the marionette. Moreover, Euphemia is not like Cornelia. In an impossible battle, Cornelia would fight and die rather than lose. Euphemia would grow frightened and make concessions. We, the Order of the Black Knights, will give her that fear."

WWW

"Lulu! You're late!"

"Sorry, Shirley," Lelouch said. "I told you I was going to be a little late. You're all wet." It was raining hard than night. Shirley was drenched and probably freezing.

"Oh, that's okay," she said cheerfully, getting close to him under his umbrella. "You have your ticket, don't you?"

"Of course I have. Now let's get out of the rain. The performance is starting."

"By the way, the other day when you wanted to talk with my dad, what was that about?"

"It doesn't matter anymore," Lelouch replied as they moved into the theater. "He didn't answer the phone, so I ended up using someone else."

"Oh. You know, I got to see him that same day. He got a phone call saying that I was in the hospital, and at the time I thought that it was just a dumb prank, but then there was this huge landslide that killed all these people that my dad worked with. When I heard about it, I realized that if he hadn't come home that day, he might have been buried alive."

"That's an awfully optimistic viewpoint," Lelouch replied, with a convincing tone of skepticism.

"Hey, Lulu? You're sure that you never called him that day?"

"I'm sure," he said calmly. "If he thought you were in the hospital, you couldn't expect him to answer his phone."

"Oh," she said thoughtfully. "I wonder who called him then."

"I haven't the slightest idea."

"Hm. Maybe I have a guardian angel or something."

"Yeah, that must be it."

Her eyes widened suddenly and she looked at Lelouch as though in a new light. "Hey, Lulu? Do you—"

"Sh, the concerts starting."

Throughout the entire performance, Lelouch saw Shirley flashing a smile at him out of the corner of his eye, but he pretended not to notice. He wouldn't be surprised if she suspected something, but even if she knew for certain, he could trust her. She'd proven herself in the past. Even with Zero responsible for her father's death, she still hadn't acted against him, and now, she would have even less motive.

"What did you think?" Shirley asked afterwards as they were exiting the concert hall.

"I thought it was pretty good," he said neutrally. "But hold on a minute. Some maniac has been calling me during the entire performance. I probably should call him back just in case it's important."

Lelouch put some distance between him and Shirley. If the call was important, then whoever called probably wanted to speak with someone besides Lelouch.

"Hey, time travel boy! I was wondering when you'd managed to squeeze time between the Black Knights and your personal love life to call me back."

Lelouch froze. Knowing about the Black Knights was explainable, but the only person he told about time travel was C.C., and that was _not_ C.C.'s voice.

"Who is this?"

"What, you don't remember me?" the man asked. "Maybe you're not as smart as you think you are after all." Lelouch heard laughter on the other line. _Childish_ laughter. And..._clapping. _

"You!"

"Yes, me," he said. "Me, me, me, me, me. But enough about me. How's C.C.?"

WWW

a/n You know, I was surprised at how many people wanted me to avoid Shirley's father's death. I mean, it seemed obvious to me that Lelouch wouldn't let that fiasco happen again, but maybe because I actually know where this story is headed. A lot of other people wanted me to develop more the relationship between Lelouch and Kallen. I will, I promise, I just haven't that much in this chapter because, believe it or not, a war zone is a terrible place for that sort of thing, and that took up most of this chapter. I think I mentioned this before, but I really don't like writing fight scenes. I do like, however, reviews. Over ninety reviews so far. You people really are amazing.

By the way, I did change the order of a few things in this chapter. In the canon, the date with Shirley occurred after the meeting with the Kyoto group, but with the slightly different way Zero shook the world, there is no guarantee that the Kyoto group would want to meet on the same day, that Cornelia would attack on the same day, or that Shirley would get tickets for the same day. In any case, the chronology of these sort of events is only for dramatic effect, and the dramatic effect was suited better in this story this way.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

a/n I do not own Code Geass, or any other anime you've ever heard of.

Lelouch walked down the street, trying not to show the anxiety he knew he couldn't hide. Anyone else would be fooled by his calm demeanor, his confident expression, but Lelouch knew he couldn't lie to Mao.

And yet…he had beaten him before. Lelouch faced Mao thrice, and in the end, Mao was dead and Zero wasn't. He wanted to see that as proof that he was stronger, but the truth was that Mao could have destroyed him at any given time. That was the difference between the two Geass users. Mao wanted to have fun, but Zero played to win. And yet, despite his demented psyche, Mao was every bit as dangerous as Schneizel.

Lelouch saw Mao at the designated meeting place. When Mao called him, Zero asked to meet him there. It was secluded enough so they could speak privately and open enough so no one could pull out a gun and shoot the other unnoticed.

"So I was having a pleasant evening with a girl that's been stalking me since who knows when," Lelouch began conversationally, "and then I got a phone call from my least favorite psychopath."

Just as C.C. gave him the power to command people, the witch gave Mao the power to read minds. He could hear the conscious thoughts of anyone within five hundred meters, but if he focused on just one person, he could—

"You idiot!" Mao shrieked angrily. "What were you thinking, sending her out in the middle of a battle? Are you crazy?"

Lelouch considered pointing out the irony of Mao questioning Zero's sanity, but decided it wouldn't be appropriate.

"Or original," Mao added.

"I doubt C.C. is in any real danger," Lelouch replied. "Whatever the JLF are doing to her, I hardly believe they are cutting her apart with chainsaws and stuffing her in suitcases."

The reason Zero wanted to speak with Mao face to face instead of over the phone was that even though they were too far apart for Mao to read his mind, Lelouch wanted to be able to see his expression. The man was utterly transparent, and anything involving C.C. got under his skin like nothing else.

"You're one to talk, Lelouch. Tell me it's foolish to care about people when you're standing on Nunnally's grave."

"Could we stop bickering like children?" Lelouch suggested. "I can't provoke you because you know what I'm thinking, and you can't provoke me because I know you can read my mind. And anyway, I have a proposition for you."

"You need my help," he stated.

"If you want to see it that way. You aren't my only solution, but you could solve a lot of problems for me. Sooner or later, I'll need to eliminate the Japan Liberation Front. They're using too much resources and manpower that I need, but if I attacked them, the Black Knights would be…hesitant to work against a supposed ally."

"And they might realize that you're manipulating their hatred for Britannia for your own ends," Mao concluded. "And since I already know that, you have no problem at all asking for my help."

"You find out where the JLF are hiding, I'll recruit a small army, and C.C. will be free in a few hours," Lelouch replied. "The trickiest part will be the aftermath. In the end, it will be a race to see who can double cross the other first. I'll have several times you're fire power, but you'll have a few seconds head start. Is that a gamble you want to take, Mao? I don't."

Mao burst out in a fit of hysterical laughter. "I don't believe it!" he exclaimed, clapping. "I don't believe you expect me to join the Black Knights! You really are crazy!"

"I could make you head of investigation and interrogation. Do you know of anyone more qualified for that post than you?"

"Not in the whole world," Mao affirmed. "And I suppose after that, we share C.C. between us? I get her weekends, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, and you get her the rest of the week or something like that?" He laughed and clapped his hands together before stopping suddenly. "But what if I don't want to share?"

_You don't have a choice._ "Do you know why C.C. left you?" Lelouch asked dangerously. "The power she gave me isn't a fraction of what she gave you. You could change the world with what you have, but what have you done? When was the last time you did something more ambitious than get rich cheating in poker? You've had your power for over half my life, and what have you made of it? What have you made of yourself?"

"You claim you love C.C., and you believe she loves you back," Lelouch continued. "I can't confirm nor deny that, but I will ask you this. Do you think that really matters? If you force C.C. to chose between me and you, she'd chose herself. Whether or not she loves you, if you get in her way, she'll kill you. She might hate herself for it, but she did last time, and she'd do it again. She has her own agenda, you see, a contract she wants fulfilled. You couldn't fulfill it, so she moved on."

"Who says I can't fulfill it?" Mao growled.

"Can you?" Zero asked neutrally. "Did C.C. even tell you what the contract was? She told me. Could you do it?"

Mao's face twisted in rage and pain as he registered Zero's thoughts. "I…I don't want her to die! I want us to be together!"

"Exactly! And if you did take her code, she would die, and you would live on for a few more centuries until you found someone who could fulfill a contract with you. That's a long time, Mao. Do you think that after all that time, C.C. would still be waiting for you in the next life, or would she have moved on? However, if she stays with me, I'll take her code, and if you want, the two of you can die together."

"You know me as well as I know myself," Lelouch continued. "But I know a few things about you, too. You do not control your Geass; your Geass is the bane and torment of your existence. You obsess over C.C. because her mind is silent to you. However, if you try to steal her and take her to your secluded corner of the world, she will kill you and come back. If you keep her locked up and in chains for the rest of your life, then you will spend the remainder of your days with her hating you, and you will die with her cursing your name."

"That's not true! She loves me!"

"Am I lying?" Mao didn't respond. "If you join the Black Knights, you get everything you want. I will be forced to keep C.C. around you to keep you in check, and I know how you like playing games with people. How would you like to play your games with the entire world? And if you help me, I'll give _you_ something you want."

Mao's eyes narrowed behind his visor before his mouth burst into a wide grin. "Is the Devil going to want his tongue back anytime soon? Because you are really overusing it."

"The last time I played my brother, Schneizel, in chess, we ended in a draw. The last two times I played you, I was humiliated. Help me beat my brother in chess, Mao, and I'll use my Geass to _command_ you control yours."

"I assume that when you say chess, you're not talking about the board game."

"You know perfectly well what I'm talking about."

"But how do I know if that will even work? Not even you know for certain."

"It's a calculated risk. I cannot command a dying man to live, but I can make people forget certain things, which they can't do consciously. And even if it doesn't work, then that is one less weapon that I can't use against you. Ultimately you lose nothing."

_As long as he is useful to me, I have no reason to kill him. As long as he needs me, he will not kill me._ It occurred to Zero that Mao had never offered his services to Britannia, nor gone to the police to turn Zero in, even when it suited his purposes. If he had, then wouldn't he have received respect, prestige, and power? If the Black Knights could use his help, then Britannia certainly could.

_Britannia would give him power, and use that to control him._ Mao chose freedom over power, and always had. But if that was the case, then he would have no reason to—

"I'll do it," he said.

"You'll…you will?" _What are you playing at?_ Mao waited to say yes until after Zero realized why he would say no.

"Sure I will," he said freely. "I mean, I can't leave C.C. locked in some prison cell by a load of terrorists, and being in the Black Knights might be fun…unless you can find someone better qualified for the head of investigation and interrogation."

Mao didn't answer Lelouch's mental question, and he could only assume that was deliberate. "Fine. First of all, we need to find C.C. You know what you have to do, right?"

"Of course I do. I just have to find something that the entire Britannian military hasn't been able to figure out yet."

"There's a military prison not too far from here where they're interrogating some captured members of the JLF. Do you know where it is?"

"I do now."

WWW

"He doesn't know anything."

Villetta's shoulder's sank almost imperceptibly. "You're sure, Guilford?"

"I had a chance to talk with Kururugi after the battle," he replied. "He seemed to be feeling guilty about failing the mission, but not about betrayal. If he were a double agent, he would feel nervous that he might be suspected, but not guilty about letting Lady Cornelia be captured. In his eyes, I saw shame, but not fear."

Villetta glanced over her shoulder to see if anyone was listening. This was her lead, and she wasn't sharing. "Zero is connected with that boy. I know he is."

"Does Kururugi know this?" Guilford asked. "Perhaps the connection is one sided."

"It…could be," she admitted.

"And Suzaku is by all accounts an honorable man."

"Yes, but that alone is suspicious. There is no way a man of his skills and talent would settle for what we're paying him. If he is an honorable man, he could work as an honorable man anywhere, even under Zero. Zero definitely spoke to him. Why else would he have deleted the Lancelot's communication history?"

"He has an alibi. It both explained his actions and fits with what we know of Zero. And the fact that he didn't bring up the fact that he deleted the history is further proof that he had no foul intentions."

"Yes, but you can't deny that his failure to protect Princess Cornelia benefits him."

Once, long ago, Guilford would have considered someone like Villetta beautiful, but that was before he became the princess's knight. After taking commands from Lady Cornelia, knowing her beauty, ferocity, passion, her indescribable majesty, it was as though he had dined on Mount Olympus, and could never again be content in the company of mortals.

"_But I could have won!"_ Suzaku had said. _"If I were…someone else."_ That seemed like an innocent enough statement. Guilford himself had been ill content with his own limitations, now more than ever. But what if…_You could have won if you were…who? _It was no secret what Princess Cornelia thought of Elevens. _If you were a Britannian, would you have tried harder?_ _ Hard enough to win?_

"You're right," Guilford said slowly. "He did seem optimistic about Princess Euphemia being the new viceroy."

"And you're not?"

"Lady Euphemia lacks experience. She knows nothing of war, and Area Eleven has already captured two members of the royal family in the past _month_. It could be on the verge of revolution within the year. In gentler times, in more peaceful circumstances, she might make a suitable ruler, but now…"

"Perhaps Princess Euphemia's coronation is exactly what Zero wants," Villetta suggested.

Guilford considered the possibility. "If not, he will just target her too, but I can understand that."

"And suppose Zero convinced Suzaku that it would be better for the Elevens if this area had a more…benevolent ruler. That would explain the Lancelot's communication history."

Guilford shook his head. "When I spoke with him, he accused himself. If he were guilty of conspiring with the enemy, he would have defended himself. If Suzaku betrayed us, he did not do so consciously."

"So you don't think Zero used his…abilities?" Villetta asked.

Guilford narrowed his eyes carefully. "No, and I don't think you should mention that to anyone."

"Why not?"

"We don't know what that _thing_ is capable of. His ability to force hallucinations into a man's head in the middle of battle is more than I ever would have believed. But if the general military learns about Zero's ability to control people, things could get very bad very quickly."

"What do you mean?"

"Suppose I walk up to General Dalton one day and murder him, but later I deny doing it and claim amnesia, who would know? Did I kill him because Zero forced me to, or merely because I wanted to? If that kind of information gets out, the excuse, 'Zero made me do it,' could utterly liberate everyone from responsibility. If people find out about this, the empire will fall to chaos."

WWW

"Have you found anything yet?" Zero asked over the phone.

"You know what, I'm starting to think you don't believe I'm taking this seriously."

Zero gritted his teeth and forced the irritation out of his voice. "Where are you?"

"I'm more than five hundred meters away, if that's what you're asking," Mao replied.

_Like I can believe that._ "No, I mean, have you found the JLF headquarters yet or anything?"

"Well, I'm getting there, I'm getting there. It's not like what's-his-face had an exact idea either."

"From the military prison?"

"Yeah, that's it. I'm not really free to talk. Taxi cab drivers get suspicious over the most peculiar things. I don't suppose you could have Geassed me a driver before we split up. I'm running out of cash."

"Do you think you're close?"

"I'm either really close or almost out of options. How about you?"

"I have about fifty Britannian soldiers and police officers, two of which have Sutherlands."

"That's it? Did you stop to get a milkshake along the way?"

"I can't use my Geass on civilians. They would just get in the way, but if I get another knightmare or so, that should be enough. When I play, I don't waste pieces."

"Man, that's cold."

"Is there a point to mince words with a mind reader?"

"I guess no more than there is to arguing with a…with a…hey, what do you call a guy who can force people to obey him?"

"A commander."

Zero imagined that Mao was rolling his eyes on his side of the phone. "I _knew_ that. But what I meant was—oh, you know what I mean. Hey, I bet this is the first time you worked with another Geass user since you screwed that Rolo kid brother of yours. Man, remind me never to save your life."

"You're trying to provoke me," Lelouch replied. "It's not going to work."

"I'm not trying to provoke you," Mao protested. "If I were trying to provoke you, I'd bring up the cat festival. You know, I think _that's_ why you work so hard to keep your identity a secret. If your men saw you with whiskers and furry ears, would they follow you, or just laugh?"

"The furry ears have nothing to do with it, you deranged psychopath."

"Do you mind if I quote you…on…oh my."

"What?"

"Hey, you said so far you got fifty men with guns following you?"

"Yes."

"And two Sutherlands?"

"Correct."

Mao paused. "Can any of them swim?"

WWW

Mao yawned widely. "I really should be asleep by now. It is way past my bed time." By how much, he wasn't sure. Most of the people around him thought it was around three thirty in the morning, but then again, most of the people around him thought Lelouch vi Britannia was the undisputed ruler of the earth.

"You're sure C.C.'s on that ship?" Lelouch asked.

"Sure? No. That I know of, none of the JLF over there is thinking about her obsessively, but that doesn't mean anything. Some people are just weird that way."

They were on the waterfront, looking at the ship the Japan Liberation Front was using as a temporary base. More than sixty armed men were commanded to follow Zero's every command and three Sutherlands. None of the knightmares were aquatic, but that's what the helicopters were for. Some of the men were wearing JLF uniforms. Where Zero got those uniforms, Mao had no idea. He wasn't inwardly gloating about his own cleverness in that respect, so it probably wasn't that interesting in the first place.

"So that's the plan, huh?" Mao asked after Lelouch got done thinking of it. "Seems sort of, I don't know, basic."

"No miracle is impressive if it's understood," he replied sagely. Mao managed to disguise his laugh as a fit of coughing, but Zero wasn't convinced. He turned to his troops. "You five, come with me. The rest of you, do not kill me or do anything detrimental to the mission. Also, obey Mao's orders unless they contradict mine."

Zero got in one of their stolen motorboats with his chosen men and sped off, thinking big, confident thoughts, but mostly hating Mao for being forced to rely on him, and despising him for knowing more about him than he did of Mao.

When Lelouch was at a good distance, Mao turned to the men. "So," he said. "You people have do what I say, right?"

"Yes sir!" they said in unison.

"Well, let's have a little test, shall we? All of you, turn to the right."

They did.

"And now to the left."

They did.

_Oh man, I could do this all day._ "Now stand on your head."

WWW

The marine behemoth loomed against the city lights as it rose and fell with the waves. Backed by hapless pawns, the creator and architect of the Black Knights rocked gently in its frail craft as his men readied their grappling hooks. Lelouch dialed Mao.

"Hey Mao," he said. "Are you abusing the authority I gave you?"

"No!" he said defensively. "…yes. But that doesn't matter. Does hapless mean the same thing as helpless? It doesn't? Thanks."

"Mao…"

"Not yet. The guard will change in just a little bit, and you'll have about forty seconds before the next one comes."

Zero waited a bit before telling his men to throw the hooks, and they started to scale the ship. They were halfway up when Mao called back.

"What is it?" Zero growled, cursing him mentally.

"Uh, no, I didn't know how hard it is to answer a phone while climbing a rope, but I can imagine it now," Mao replied, answering his unspoken question. "I thought you might want to know that it was forty seconds until the next guard _gets_ there. It was _thirty_ seconds until the next one gets close enough to _see _you."

"_What?"_

"Such foul language I hear in your head," Mao commented. "Do you kiss your mother with that mouth? Or…head? No, I guess not."

Lelouch looked up at the remaining distance and estimated their remaining time. It was going to be close, but he couldn't risk the guard noticing a couple of grappling hooks on the side of their ship. To his chagrin, he was the last one to get to the top, and the only one panting for breath when the guard came.

The guard looked at them suspiciously despite their JLF uniforms. "What are you doing here? If you do not have important business on deck, you should be asleep."

Lelouch managed to catch his breath to speak. "Sir!" he said urgently. "Bad news. I just saw a saboteur board the ship! The entire JLF is in danger!"

"What? A saboteur? Who?"

Lelouch smiled inwardly as he activated his Geass. "Me."

WWW

Mao climbed aboard the ship. "Man, that was easy. Listening to you climb up that rope, I was expecting something horribly traumatic."

_Shut up._ "Launch the attack on the starboard side," Lelouch ordered the remaining troops on the shore over the phone.

"You do know that we could just waltz down to wherever they're holding C.C. and have you Geass everyone who asks us what we're doing. We don't have to bombard them and wake everyone up."

"And you know that I've made my decision and there's nothing you can do to change my mind, so that leads to the question of why you bothered saying anything at all," Lelouch replied.

Mao shrugged. "Maybe I'm just crazy."

"Arguably."

"Although this isn't the first time you've risked the lives of people you care about for the anterior motives in your plans."

"Are you ever going to stop talking?"

"You know the answer to that as well as I."

_Pity._ The Sutherlands landed on the ship, and the entire JLF rose up in alarm. "Let's go."

It was like swimming upstream, moving against the sudden current of the army. With all the people flooding toward the invading soldiers and knightmares, Lelouch realized the risk of getting killed in the crossfire.

"Now that would be anticlimactic," Mao commented. Lelouch ignored him.

"Let us through," Lelouch told a guard when they arrived at the prison quarters, regretting that the man's helmet covered his eyes. "The general has business with one of the prisoners."

"I can't let you in without a signed order," he replied. He turned to Mao, who had refused to don a JLF uniform. "And who are you?"

"I'm with him," Mao said. "And besides, you know me, Arashi. Sorry about Sulu, though. Tough break man."

"What are you talking about? I've never seen you before in my life! And why aren't you in uniform?"

"Well, you might be used to that thing, but I'm not. A majority of Britannian princes think your uniform is itchy and rides up in the back like nothing else."

All three guards stared at Mao. "_What?"_

_Idiot._ "Let me explain," Zero interrupted. _Shoot the one on the left on my signal._ "This man is a representative of the Chinese Federation, you see, and—" He pulled out his gun and shot him at the moment that Mao shot the other, and they shot the third as one.

"You know, I'm just going to come out and say it because I know you never will," Mao said. "But we make a pretty dang good team."

"Free the prisoners," Zero ordered. "Make sure they know this is a _Britannian_ rescue mission."

Mao grinned wide and knowingly. "It will take a lot more than that to keep me in line."

"What?"

"By the way, that fruity guy who wants you dead is down there too."

"Who?"

"Orange."

Zero made some quick calculations. "Keep track of him. The other prisoner's can go wherever they wish, but don't let Orange get too far."

Mao left Lelouch to guard his back and descended into the prison cells. He searched the minds of the inmates for memories of a green haired beauty, but if any of them had seen C.C., they weren't thinking about her obsessively. That didn't make much sense to him, but if he learned one thing about people in his life, it was that they didn't always make sense.

"Hey, Orange," he said. "I—"

"MY NAME'S NOT ORANGE!"

"…Right. Jeremiah. _Lord_ Jeremiah. I'm part of the Britannian special forces. We're here to free you people."

"You don't look Britannian," Jeremiah replied. "You look Asian."

"My…superiors…would like a word with you afterwards. Said something about "restoring your noble status?"

"What can I do to help?"

"Have you seen a girl being held here? About this tall, green hair, amber eyes, unsurpassable beauty, and a weird tattoo on her forehead?"

"I think so, yes. The far room that way, for special prisoner's, I saw someone like that taken there."

"Good," Mao said unlocking Orange's cell. "Now I want you to free the rest of the prisoners in the name of the Holy Britannian Empire."

"Yes sir!"

Mao strode to the indicated cell and opened it up dramatically. "C.C., your knight in shining armor is here to save you."

C.C. stared at him with surprise, slow recognition, and finally, shock. "Oh no. Oh please no."

"Now that's not very nice."

"Please tell me there's someone…_rational_, behind this."

Mao sighed heavily. "You know, a lesser man could get really jealous talking to you. You've aged really well, by the way. Eight hundred years look good on you."

C.C. laughed finally. "You haven't changed a bit, either. You're just taller."

Mao grinned back, deciding that she wasn't going to mentioned her new contract with Lelouch, and he wondered what that meant. "Let's go!"

WWW

Ultimately, the rescue mission went perfectly. Zero accomplished everything he had hoped to, and more. Just a few loose ends remained to be tied up.

"You of the JLF," he commanded, "return to their services as normal, revealing nothing of what you did tonight. And if you get the chance to assassinate General Katase, take it. As for the rest of you, return to your lives, but when Zero commands the world, _obey!"_

The men left to follow his orders, likely not even aware they were complying. With that, Zero returned to C.C., Mao, and most importantly, Jeremiah Gottwald.

The Britannian stood up and saluted him smartly. "No need for that, Gottwald," Lelouch replied, motioning him to sit. "C.C., Mao, I would like a word with this man in private, if you please."

"No problem," Mao said before leaving. "Come on, C.C., these sort of conversations can take weeks."

"If I may ask," Lelouch asked Jeremiah, "how did you obtain custody of the Japan Liberation Front?"

"I, regrettably, fell in the battle of Narita. When the JLF was evacuating the area, they found me and captured me. They took me prisoner because they…suspected that I had dealings with Zero."

"Have you?"

"On my life and honor, I _swear_ I have not."

Lelouch resisted the urge to laugh. Life was cheap, but Orange had gone through human experiments and madness in another life to regain his honor and prove to Britannia that he was no traitor. For a while, Lelouch thought that that was what was most important to him.

"I remember the Kururugi incident," Lelouch said. "Years of loyalty and dedicated service lay forgotten and buried under the veneer of an incident that no one really understood. I have no doubt that you are no traitor, but I have come to the conclusion that Britannia is unworthy of your services."

Jeremiah blinked, dumbfounded. "But do you not also serve the Empire?"

"No. I serve the Black Knights."

Jeremiah rose to his feet in rage, speechless.

"And I offer you the chance to join us."

"Never! Regardless of the trust and status I have lost, my loyalty has always been to Britannia, and I would _die_ before I betrayed my Empire!" He turned to leave.

"Your loyalty has _always_ been to Britannia?" Lelouch repeated. "I was under the impression that you were once loyal to someone else. A woman. Empress Marianne."

Jeremiah spun around. "What do _you_ know about the Empress?"

"You were her guard at Aries Palace the day she was assassinated. On the day she died, you were charged with her protection. Since then, you have sought to redeem yourself in the eyes of the empire. But you need to do more than redeem yourself in the eyes of the empire. You need to redeem yourself in mine." Lelouch vi Britannia removed his helmet, showing his face. "Do you recognize me?"

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Kallen made her way into the hideout, wondering where Zero's plans would take the Black Knights. Zero had been leading them from a vain hope to something that she could really sink her teeth into. She wondered how long it would be before it stopped being hit and run and started being more hunt and pursue. They just got another letter from the Kyoto group, and that could only be good.

With Ohgi, Tamaki, and the others, she stepped into the meeting room, and what she saw stopped her dead.

Zero sat back comfortably on a grey coach. To his left sat a woman clutching a yellow stuffed animal with light green hair that fell down to her waist. At her side sat a tall Chinese man with white hair and a visor over his eyes.

On Zero's right sat a Britannian.

"Orange!" Kallan gasped. "Or…Jeremiah! You!"

"What is this?" Tamaki demanded. He turned to the green haired girl and jumped. "Holy—wha…what is going on here?"

Zero didn't seem the least bit startled by their reaction. If anything, it seemed like he had expected it. "Gentlemen, these are some of my associates, Mao, C.C., and you've already met Orange. They will henceforth be part of the Order of the Black Knights."

Kallen's jaw dropped in stunned silence. Tamaki, on the other hand… "_What_?" he shrieked. "I mean—_what?"_

"I'll have to side with Tamaki on this one," Ohgi said. He gestured toward Orange. "Not only is this man a Britannian, but he is a member of their military and has fought against us already. How can you expect us to trust him?"

"Yes, I fought against you before, but I didn't know who Zero _was_ then!" Orange protested.

The room fell silent. Mao tried not to laugh.

"Wait," Tamaki started. "So you let this two faced Brit see your face, but not _us,_ who've been supporting you from the _start_?"

"I don't know what you're so worked up about," Mao said. "His face isn't that much to look at, let me tell you."

"Him too?" Ohgi asked, sounding betrayed. "You let these new people know who you are, but leave us in the dark?"

"You don't know that," Kallen said suddenly. "We've just met these people now, but that helping us out from behind the scenes the whole time, right?"

"No, actually I just met this guy last night," Mao said.

Mao acted like the whole thing was some big joke. C.C. seemed bored, like no matter what happened, it wouldn't affect her. The only one who seemed to take things seriously was the Britannian, and he seemed to know that nothing he said would help his position.

"Zero," Ohgi said. "You've always done things your own way and kept your secrets, and I understand that, but we've been with you this whole time, and we deserve your trust as much as anyone. I think we have the right to see the face of the man we're working for."

_Well, that was blunt._ Kallen wanted to see Zero's face too, but she thought bullying him could backfire.

"Tell me, Ohgi," Zero said calmly. "What makes a man? What is he? Is it his birth, his heritage, as our enemies preach? Or is it his actions, his decisions?"

"It's the second, of course."

"Then how will you profit by knowing the name my mother gave me, or seeing the face that is a genetic mix of my ancestors? But this mask I wear is the face I have chosen, and Zero is the name I give myself."

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Zero sat alone in his office. _That could have gone smoother,_ he thought. But it didn't matter that much. Ultimately, the Black Knights would obey him because they had no choice. Desperation could make very loyal friends.

But now Zero had to deal with more pressing matters, like the letter from the Kyoto group that he held in his hand. They were interested in giving the Knights more funding, but they wanted to meet with Zero personally before they were willing to commit. Last time, the Kyoto group made an almost identical request, and Zero could deal with them the same way, but…why should he?

Last time, he took a gamble that out of the ten hypothetical members of the group, he'd meet with the one that he already knew personally. That might work again, but there was only a one in six chance that he would meet with the same man.

Zero leaned back in his chair. _Why not?_ Zero thought. _I think I'll take the initiative this time._

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"I can't believe this crap!" Tamaki complained. "I mean, who does Zero think he is, anyway?"

"Our leader, commander, founder?" Kallen suggested. "He made us into an organized force instead of just a rabble of terrorists."

"Thanks, Kallen," Tamaka scoffed. "I'll come to you next time I need someone to point out the obvious."

"I'm just saying that he's already proven himself plenty," Kallen said. "So if he wants to make some…unexpected recruits, we should trust him."

"Unexpected is right," Tamaki muttered. "Bringing that Brit in here was bad enough without that freaky dame."

"Who, C.C.?" Ohgi asked.

"Yeah. I saw her at the battle of Narita. A Knightmare feaking sat on her, and she's not dead."

"Wait, she's the one Zero was asking about afterwards?" Kallen asked.

When they were clearing out, Zero asked what happened to a certain girl who was with him. When he was told that she died, Zero didn't seem upset or anything.

He just laughed.

"_She'll turn up in a few days,"_ he had said.

"And what's with inviting that Brit to join the Black Knights in the first place?" Tamaki carped. "I mean, they're the enemy!"

"No they're not," Kallen said suddenly, remembering her friends from school. "We're Heroes of Justice, right? We fight against Britannia not because of what they are, but because what they do is wrong. If we resort to prejudice and racial discrimination, we're no better than them. The way I see it, is that if someone, even a Britannian, hates what the empire is doing, then…"

Her voice trailed off as a raven haired boy in a school uniform flashed in her head. _Ideals?_ _Their only ideals are that people like you aren't worth crap! There's not a Britannian out there who wouldn't sell out their best friend for a decent promotion!_

If he hates what the empire is doing—_my mother was gunned down as a victim of political intrigue. My sister was there to watch—_even a Britannian…

Kallen wondered how Zero would react if she invited a Britannian to join the Black Knights.

Outside the door and down the hall, Mao burst out laughing.

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a/n Man, that took forever! I was almost done with the chapter when I got a sudden bout of writer's block and started playing videogames (bad idea). Although I still believe that any time reading Dr. McNinja is time well spent. But yeah, Mao is really fun to write, and two Geass users and a genius strategist is worth a small army in my book. Thanks for all the reviews, and next time I leave a cliff hanger, I'll try not to go AWOL.


	9. Chapter 9

Your Past, My Future

Chapter Nine

a/n I own nothing. Kind of like last time, in that respect.

Tsunako glanced up from her desk when she heard someone walk in. Hundreds of people came in regularly, men in business suits with more greed than money, but this person was just a student, still in a school uniform. _Relative?_ Unlikely. Tsunako couldn't see any family resemblance between the student and her boss, Kirihara Taizo, but she doubted that the boy was old enough to be involved on Taizo's level of business.

"Can I help you?" she asked.

"Yes," he said. He was tall, with black hair and violet eyes. "I'd like to speak with Taizo."

"Do you have an appointment?" she asked doubtfully.

"No, but he's not in a meeting with anyone right now, is he?"

"I can't let you in without an appointment."

He smiled confidently, far too arrogant for her liking. "But he doesn't know that I don't have an appointment, does he? No one knows his schedule, but you, correct?"

"What sort of _business,_ exactly, do you have with him?"

"Personal business," he said. "I'm a…friend of the family, you could say."

Tsunako reached for the phone. "Fine, I'll ask him if he wants to see you. What was your name?"

"I'd rather it be a surprise, actually," he said, still smiling. "Why don't you just tell him I have an appointment?"

His left eye flashed with…something, and her brain stopped working entirely. For a moment, she could no longer see, feel, think, she could only here that voice, as though the voice of God, from the furthest reaches of the universe.

"Yes," her mouth said passively. "Yes, of course."

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Kirihara Taizo's eyes widened slightly when Lelouch entered the room. "Lelouch!" he whispered. "I wasn't expecting to see you again. You must be in some serious trouble."

"No," Lelouch replied. "My father still…is this room secure?"

Taizo pressed a few buttons under his desk and deactivated the security cameras. "Absolutely."

Lelouch wondered how many people were suspicious of Taizo's dealings. Probably not many. The man had a flawless persona of a corrupt businessman, and few knew how much of the bribes he took ended up in the pockets of resistance leaders.

"My father still doesn't know if I'm alive," Lelouch continued. "Or at least doesn't care. No, I'm here to discuss the Kyoto House's further funding of my organization, the Black Knights."

Taizo's eyes grew round, and then a slow smile crept along his face. "Unbelievable," he whispered. "So you're…"

"Yes."

He sat down heavily. "You could have just waited for the meeting tomorrow night."

"I could have," Lelouch admitted. "But the Kyoto representative would want to see my face, and I wasn't sure which one I would meet. You know me as an enemy of Britannia, but Osakabe, Kubouin, and Munakata might have been difficult to work with."

Taizo gave him a firm stare. "You've done your homework, kid, I'll give you that much. Even for the leader of the Black Knights, knowing the names of four of the five leaders of our group is quite a feat."

"I figured Kaguya admired me too much to be an unbiased judge."

"Five for five, then," Taizo said with a laugh. "How'd you pull that off?"

"I have my ways." _I read the obituaries._ "But it's not a leak Britannia has access to."

The old man leaned back in his chair. "By the way, admire is an understatement. Last I checked, Kaguya had a Zero action figure."

"Wait, they make Zero action figures now?"

"Yeah, sure. Zero action figures, posters, plushies…I'm telling you, kid, copyright your merchandise when this is over, and you'll be rich."

_Plushies? I don't know how I feel about that. _"Yes, well, I'm not in this for the money."

"Really?" Taizo asked. "Then why did you come here?"

Lelouch stopped short and laughed. Seven years ago both Lelouch and Taizo had submitted to Britannia's reign, waiting for the right moment to strike back. Lelouch stopped laughing and smiled darkly. "I'm here for the Knightmares."

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Euphemia thought that her mind would explode any minute. She wasn't in charge of Area Eleven for a week before realizing that not only in the centuries of Britannia's history, the empire had as of yet failed to make an area capable of governing itself, but that she was in no way capable of pulling it off.

"And you should choose a knight as soon as possible," Guilford said.

Right. Not only were there procedures, protocols, policies, Clovis's first annual art show since his death, there was also the resistance movement that already took two of her siblings.

"And I couldn't just have you be my knight, right?"

Guilford shook his head. "I will protect you with my life, but until my death I remain your sister's knight. But a knight is more than someone who can protect you. It's not enough for him to understand your will, he has to believe what you believe, want the same things you do, and by the same methods."

Euphie looked at a list of possible candidates for knighthood, but she couldn't focus. "Do you think she's alright?" she whispered.

"Lady Cornelia is without equal," Guilford assured her. "There is nothing she can't handle." Then, almost to himself, he added, "Zero will regret taking her."

"If she were here…she'd be able to tell me to call her Cornelia when I call her viceroy and viceroy when I call her Cornelia and she'd know the difference between viceroy and vicereine, and…everything would be alright."

Guilford hesitated awkwardly before responding. "I understand, your Highness. You've lost two siblings to this country already, but I promise you, it will go no further."

Euphemia smiled weakly and looked down at her desk. "That's what Cornelia told me…seven years ago."

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The meeting with Taizo went perfectly. The full backing of the Kyoto group, their funds, equipment, research, could hold the Black Knights over for a long time. Now Lelouch had another meeting, this one with Kallen. It was when he was heading in that direction that he saw Suzaku.

"Hey, Suzaku. You look terrible."

He grunted in response. Suzaku kept staring into the distance, a sunken, haunted look in his eyes. He jumped slightly when Lelouch touched him on his shoulder.

"Oh, hey, Lelouch, I didn't notice you there."

"I noticed. What's wrong with you?"

"I'm fine, I just haven't been getting a lot of sleep recently." He paused. "Lelouch? What do you think of Zero?"

"A lot of things, actually. Why?"

"Nothing," Suzaku replied. "A lot of people are talking about him where I work. Some say he's an incarnation of justice, others say vengeance. Some people say he can't be killed." Lelouch forced himself not to smile. "I ran into him last week."

"You did?" Lelouch asked, sounding surprised.

"He saved my life back when I was accused of treason and regicide," Suzaku explained. "He's been turning up every now and then since…like cancer. He…I never told you this, Lelouch, but I…my father didn't commit suicide. I killed him."

Lelouch nodded. "Makes sense."

"What?" Suzaku asked. "You're not surprised?"

"I figured it out a while ago, actually," Lelouch said. "You forget, I was born a Britannian prince; political assassination is in my blood. The prime minister's security was too good for an assassin to get in and out unnoticed, and in life or death your father was too stubborn to give up, so you killing him was the only logical explanation."

"What?" he gasped. "But you—does Nunnally…"

"No, of course not. She doesn't believe that good people kill their fathers, but personally I find the status of patricide rather admirable."

"You can't kill your father," Suzaku responded dutifully. "That'd be treason."

"How do you think the Emperor came to power? It's practically a family tradition. And besides, are you going to arrest me?"

"Well, no…"

"Furthermore, in the case of the former prime minister, while his death led to the death of thousands due to abuse and disorganized resistance, it adverted the deaths of millions who would have died in a fruitless struggle against an undefeatable force. If that happened to the emperor, the effect would only be magnified."

"The ends justify the means?" Suzaku summarized.

"Can you think of anything else that could?"

"That doesn't change the facts," he whispered. "I'm a murderer."

_Whoop-de-doo._ "You were ten," Lelouch corrected him. "Ten-year-olds are notoriously stupid. When I was ten, I went up to the most powerful man in the world, and told him he was a cold-blooded, heartless, soulless monster." He paused. "I was right, of course, but it still wasn't one of my better ideas."

"Do you still hate him?" Suzaku inquired. "After all this time?"

Lelouch nearly laughed. "I'm starting to question the merit of an absolute monarchy as a whole. The empire has failed to produce a single decent ruler for a good fifty years now."

"You sure about that?" Suzaku asked. "I'm not sure what you mean by decent, but Princess Euphemia doesn't seem that bad."

Lelouch hesitated. "No. No she's not. What do you think of our new viceroy?"

"I think she'll do great," Suzaku said, lightening up at last. "She's not like any of her predecessors that I've known, so some people don't think she can handle the tough decisions, but I think…I think she's really going to change things around here."

Lelouch smiled, finding the missing step in a plan he formulated long ago. "Do you know why I've had Lelouch vi Britannia officially dead for all this time? Because if my father knew I was alive, he'd use me and my sister as political tools just as he did seven years ago, and if any of the other princes or princesses knew, they'd use me for personal gain as well."

"I can't imagine Euphemia doing that," Suzaku said.

"You know what? Neither can I. And I'm sure that Nunnally would be thrilled to see her again."

"So why don't you tell her you're alive? I'm sure she'd be glad to see you too."

"I could, but I have no excuse for being in a government building, there are security cameras everywhere and guards that have been serving the royal family for decades. So why don't you do it?"

"What? But—me? She barely knows me! Why don't you just…give her a phone call or something?"

Lelouch rolled his eyes. "Can you imagine what that would be like? 'Hello, I know you can't see me or recognize my voice, but I'm your long lost brother who legally died seven years ago.' Even if she does believe me, I'll find out later that she had me on speaker phone."

"Yes, but how am _I_ supposed to talk to her about something like that?"

"Oh, _I_ don't know," Lelouch said, rolling his eyes and turning away. "Use your personal brilliance and ingenuity that always comes up at the worst possible times. But I have to go now. Let me know how it turns out."

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Lelouch met with Kallen at a park near the edge of the settlement. Whether he was meeting with Kozuki or Stadtfeld, well, he'd just have to find out.

"Hey, Lelouch,"she called over to him. "So I heard you and Shirley went on a date the other day. How'd that go?"

"It went okay," he replied conversationally, aware that any local gossip could have answered that question just as well. "We were interrupted at the very end, but it went okay."

"I heard she planned it, got the tickets, and even asked you on it," Kallen said with a laugh. "I wonder who wears the pants in that relationship."

"Did you bring me out here just to belittle my masculinity?" he asked with a scrutinizing glance. "Because you can do that at school."

"Actually, I was just thinking about something she mentioned about you the other day. She was talking about how smart you are, but how you never do anything with it. So I was wondering, what do you think?"

"Good heavens, woman, did you bring me out here because you wanted to hear me talk about _philosophy?_ You desperately need a hobby."

"I already got one," she laughed. "It's a killer. But I wanted to know what you think of, well, Britannia, for starters."

Lelouch gave her a crooked glance and raised an eyebrow. "Well, it's a more effective system against cruelty and chaos than _total_ anarchy, but anyone not fanatically subverted by their overwhelming propaganda can see what they truly stand for."

"Such as…"

"Corruption, greed, power, control, I think I've already talked to you about this. What exactly are you getting at?"

"Well, if Britannia's so bad, have you ever thought about doing anything about it?"

"I have, actually."

"And?"

"And I've found out the difference between a revolutionary and a philosopher. As mostly everything else, it is a matter of power. I am free to think about what needs to be done, and to know what needs to be done, but powerless to change it." He saw Kallen trying not to smile, so for good or ill, that was what she wanted him to say.

"So what would you say if I could get you that kind of power?" she asked. "What would you say if I could make you one of the Black Knights?"

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Kallen led Lelouch through the headquarters of the Black Knights, hoping that this wasn't a terrible idea. _What's the worst that could happen?_ she thought. Zero could decide he wasn't trustworthy and have him…silenced. _Maybe I should have run this idea past Zero first._ But she had gotten this far because of instinct. Instinctively she knew to follow Zero, and _instinctively_ she knew that Lelouch could be trusted.

"You're not the first Britannian to join the Order," Kallen said. "We've got a Britannian military guy and a journalist, both well-known and both fairly high up. You'd recognize them, but until you're officially in, it might be in your best interests not to know a whole lot."

"Right," Lelouch said. "Don't reveal any 'I'd tell you but then I'd have to kill you' secrets. I'm quite fond of my life. And that's Zero over there, isn't he?"

"The one and only. Want to talk to him?"

Lelouch looked at her as though she was joking. "Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"Of course it is. If you get Zero's approval, no one here will ever bother you again."

"And if he doesn't give me his approval?"

"Uh, well—too late! He's coming. Don't worry, just let me do the talking."

Zero walked towards them, a confidant stride. He never wandered without direction, but emanated power and control wherever he went like a leader should.

"Hello, Zero," she said. "I was just showing around one of the new recruits."

"And you are?" Zero said, directly to Lelouch.

"Lelouch Lamperouge, Zero, sir," he replied formally. "It's an honor."

"Indeed," Zero said slowly. "Q-1, go to the south-east sector and speak with Orange. He's been wanting to talk to you. And as for you, Mr. Lamperouge, come with me."

Zero turned and left. Lelouch followed after him, giving Kallen the look of a convict on death row. _Oh no,_ she thought. _I've killed him._

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Lelouch looked around to see if anyone was watching them. The hallway was empty, so the two of them darted into a closet.

"Like I said," Lelouch smiled, taking off his school uniform. "Piece of cake."

"I'm starting to think you deliberately overcomplicate things just for the thrill of it," C.C. replied, taking off the black cape and freeing her hair from the obsidian helmet.

"Nonsense. I've used that tape recorder trick so often I've lost count. This plan was the epitome of simple."

"You could have just used your Geass to tell her not to try to recruit you," C.C. replied. "I'd consider that simple."

"And rob myself of this golden opportunity?" Zero scoffed. "Of course not!"

"You just forgot you never used it on her in this timeline, haven't you?'

"I've done no such thing. And for future reference, next time you impersonate me, I don't strut like that."

"Sure you do. You strut around like you own the place."

"I do own this place," he said. "And I don't strut."

"If you say so," C.C. replied, pulling on her white boots.

For a moment neither said anything. "I'd be very surprise if Mao didn't see this coming."

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"Hey, Orange! There you are!" Kallen called. "Or, Jeremiah, sorry."

The Brittanian shrugged. "Call me whatever you like," he said easily. "It makes no difference. What can I do for you?"

"Zero said you wanted to talk to me about something."

"Ah, you would be, uh, Kallen, was it?"

"Yes."

"I understand there's been a great deal of turmoil since I joined the Black Knights."

"Don't worry about it," Kallen said. "You just go bad luck being the first Brit to join. With Diethard we have two, and a few more will join us in a while." _I hope._

"Of course, a group fighting for equality will realize the hypocrisy of racial prejudice, but there's also the matter of Zero's mask. It bothers people, doesn't it? It makes people feel like they're not trusted."

Kallen rolled her eyes. "You have _no_ idea. I've gotten so fed up with their bull crap most of the others suddenly go mute as soon as I enter the room."

"Does it make you feel less trusted, knowing that I know his face behind the mask and you don't?"

She stopped and looked at him. It wasn't a taunting question, not an "I know something you don't, ha ha" sort of thing. For a moment she wondered if Zero asked Orange to poll the loyalty of the Black Knights, but no, Orange would be a horrible choice, no one would trust him to tell him anything.

"If Zero wants to be specific about whom he shows his face to, that's his choice, and even if he doesn't tell me why, _I_ trust that he has a good reason for it. And that is all the trust I need."

Orange's severe face broke into a grin. "Perfect , Kallen, truly. No wonder Zero spoke so highly of you. Throughout my life, I've known people loyal to the people they serve and people loyal to themselves. I've _been_ someone loyal to the people I serve and loyal to myself. But someone who is loyal to an _ideal_, that is rare indeed. Zero showed me his face because he knew that I would not have helped him otherwise, but should his ideals fail, should he go mad with power and become a tyrant, I would not oppose him. That's why he needs people like you, who follow him for what he believes in, to keep him true. Zero wanted me to let you know that the trust he has for you goes beyond his mask and deeper than his face."

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Mao was stuck with his head in a beehive. The constant buzzing, chittering, chattering, maddening ceaseless wibble wobble, it was maddening. _This is why I avoid crowds,_ he thought as he cranked up the volume on his headphones.

"_I love you, Mao,"_ the soft voice whispered. _"Oh, Mao, you're so smart. Ah, there you are, Mao. Could you get that for me, Mao?"_

And then, the voice fizzled and stopped. "What?" Dead batteries. "Lousy piece of junk." But a place this big had to have some batteries somewhere. "That guy doesn't pay me enough for this job." Or at all. "Cheapskate." _I guess I'm too much of an occupational hazard to be credit worthy._ The he saw a familiar face he had often seen though another's eyes. _And speaking of occupational hazards…_

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Orange wasn't really that bad, Kallen decided. Being a Britannian, Kallen expected him to be pompous, arrogant, and snooty like the rest of them…but they weren't all like that, were they? Some of her friends at school were just regular people worried about their own lives. Sure, they had an impressive tolerance for racial inequality, but they really had no more power to change it than anyone else, and a lot less incentive to do so.

"So, how's your new recruit doing?"

Kallen turned and saw one of the new guys, Mao, staring at her. At least, she thought so. He still wore that cheap visor over his eyes, and his smile was a bit too smug for her liking.

"Oh, he's fine," Kallen forced herself to say. "Uh, Zero wanted to talk to him about something."

"Show the new guy the ropes?"

"Sure."

"Just like he does with all the new recruits?"

Kallen gave him a hard look. "Alright, what is it?"

"You do know, of course, that your little friend crossed the point of no return this afternoon when you told him about us. If Zero gives him the thumbs up, he'll spend the rest of his life in fear and die a traitor to his country. And if Zero gives him the thumbs down, well, the little blind girl is going to spend the rest of her life wondering when her big brother's coming home."

_What—but, how could you know that?_ "Shut up," she whispered. "Just shut up."

Mao kept on smiling and went on. "And that nice girl, Shirley, she'll cry." He laughed. "Like a sponge, she'll never stop, and never know what happened. But you'll know, not that you'll be able to tell anyone. Although, Zero's not the type to get his hands dirty. Kings and princes, sure, no problem, but students? Hey, maybe he'll get you to do it. You know, like a test of loyalty sort of thing. And besides, what are friends for?"

"Shut _up_, you disgusting, twisted little _thing_!" she yelled. "I don't know how or why you've looked up so much about my life, but let me tell you something, Mao. Zero doesn't work that way. It's not part of his 'Heroes of Justice' idea, and besides, he doesn't need to give me a 'test of loyalty,' because he already trusts me, okay? So you can just take your freaky, sick ideas, and stuff them up your scrawny backside, because no one wants to hear about them."

Mao just shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly. "Well, of course _Zero_ trusts you. He's not the one you've let down. Little Q-1 always follows orders, always does what she's told. Not like the good old days."

"What?"

Mao cleared his throat and spoke in a different voice, a voice he couldn't possible have heard, a voice Kallen had for so long heard only in her dreams. "I said pull back, Kallen, it's too dangerous." He pulled out a second voice, high pitched, girly, mocking. "Don't worry about me, big brother, I can handle this." "That's an order, Kallen. Get out of there, now!" "You never think I can do this, but you're wrong!"

Then, out of all things, Mao started _giggling_, like it was some terrific joke. "On a side note," he said suddenly. "Do you know where I could get some batteries? Mine just died."

WWW

Usually when Lloyd and Cecile were busy designing their contraptions, Suzaku took the opportunity to get caught up on his homework problems. Cecile could translate for Lloyd when he tried to explain what the molecular structure of metal had to do with its ability to conduct electricity, and as the two of them designed Knightmares for a living, high school physics was nothing to them. But still, Suzaku found the way Lloyd could do sine functions in his head rather frightening.

Right now, however, Suzaku was working on a different problem. "If someone wanted to talk to Princess Euphemia without anyone overhearing, how would that work?" he asked. "Um, hypothetically speaking, of course."

"She's probably busy getting ready for the art show," Cecile replied. "What did you want to talk to her about?"

"Oh, nothing," he lied. "I was just…curious how it would be done." _Yeah, that sounds convincing._

"Well, you did save her life once," Cecile said. "She'd probably spare you a moment if you asked her to."

"I didn't save her life more than anyone else," Suzaku protested.

"And you let her sister get captured," Lloyd added helpfully. "Though no more than any—ow! That's my leg!"

Cecile smiled sweetly. "You know, if you're not busy, why don't you turn this report in down at the office."

"Sure."

"And on your way back, take the opportunity to look at some of paintings on display. Some of them are pretty nice, and it'll be too crowded later on."

WWW

The locked door vibrated with a well-placed kick. It was already dented, but it still held.

"When I get my crowbar, you'll be so dead you'll enter the afterlife on life support!" Kallen screamed. "If you think for one second that—Zero!"

There he was, black cape and all, right behind her.

"Uh, Zero, sir! This isn't…I was just…"

The door burst open and Mao stepped out of the bathroom. "Hey, Z-man!" he said cheerfully. "You were looking for me?"

Zero faced him, but didn't utter a word.

"Well, what did you expect me to do?" Mao asked, as if in reply. "No, I mean…sure, no problem…oh, yeah, I'll do that then." He sauntered off. "Oh, and by the way, you are a lot of fun, Kallen. We should do this again sometime."

_Don't kill him, don't kill him, don't get in your Guren and crush him into a fine paste…_

She forced herself to face her commander. "I'm sorry," she apologized. "I shouldn't have lost my temper like that."

"Q-1," he said softly, without anger or judgment. "Don't let him get under your skin. It's what he's good at. It's what he does. I'm hoping that he'll prove to be more of an asset than a liability, and that will depend, more than anything else, on the mettle of my men."

He sounded tired, and suddenly very old. "I understand," Kallen said. "I won't let it happen again."

WWW

Mao was waiting for him down the hall. "So, are we going to get started now or what?"

_Was that really necessary?_ Zero asked.

"No, not really," he said with a shrug. "But then again, what is? And no, I'm not going to make this easy on you. It's your fault that I have to be here in this den of chattering idiots, and you have no idea what an uncontrollable Geass can do. And don't give me your nonsense about the Massacre Princess, you know that worked out too well for you to have been entirely accidental. I have to listen to Tamaki on the other side of the complex think about how much his butt itches. And you know what? It never stops."

_Did you examine the prisoner?_

"Oh yeah, yeah I did. She was still pretty loopy on sedatives, but I did find out that she hates your guts, she loves her little sister more than life itself, and her favorite color actually is purple. And you won't believe what her natural hair color is."

_Anything…useful?_

"What do you mean by useful? Oh. Well, like I said, she was still sedated. You'll have to wait until the Happy Drooling Monkey Princess can think straight before I can get you anything. What else?"

_The Four Holy Swordsmen have contacted me. I did not expect this because Todoh was not captured, so they do not need our help. Perhaps they only wish to help us against our common enemy, but…_

"But you don't want to take any chances."

_You are not to speak, only to listen._

"Right, got it."

_In fact, I want you in another room entirely._

Mao laughed. "Anything you like. By the way, you do know that when we have these one way conversations, to the casual observer, I'm the one who ends up looking crazy."

_Yes, it amuses me._

WWW

It felt good to be away from that horrid desk, with those horrible stacks of papers, in that horrible, wretched mess of politics. How Euphemia got involved in all this political mumbo jumbo in the first place, she would never understand.

_Because Dad's the Emperor._ Oh yes. That.

She wished that she could just look at the paintings that decorated the walls and enjoy them, but even the upcoming art show had politics in it. She had to give one of them an award, and if she awarded the wrong painting, people would _talk._ It would reflect what kind of ruler she was. She thought about picking one of Clovis's paintings, he had so many and it was _his_ show, but people would take that to mean that she was mourning his death and not moving on in life like a good little viceroy, and that would be _bad._

There was another painting she really liked. It had a nice little cottage in the woods, but it was painted by an Eleven, and if she picked it, then it would also be _bad._

Another painting had her father, tall and bold, with his arm raised and his hand clenched in a fist. It was extremely accurate and more than a little frightening, and probably the most politically correct one out there, but there could be half a dozen reasons she didn't understand why that painting could be _bad _as well_._

Then she saw a familiar face admiring one of Clovis's works. She glanced back at her body guards. "You know, I don't think I'm going to be assassinated in the middle of an art gallery before someone can sound the alarm. Why don't you take a break for a while?"

"Are you sure that's wise, your Highness?"

"I'm not going to sneak out a window when no one's looking again," she said with a forced laugh. "I just need a moment to…be me. Alright?"

Her guards nodded in agreement. "Understood your Highness. Take your time."

The painting Suzaku was looking at was the one Clovis made of Empress Marianne and her children, Lelouch and Nunnally.

"My brother painted that after those two died," Euphemia said. "See, that's why they're all together and smiling, because Empress Marianne died a year earlier."

"Princess Euphemia!" he said with a jump. "I'm sorry, I—"

"It's okay," she said quickly. Why were people always like that? When he just knew her as Euphie, he gave her all the respect she needed. But when she became Princess Euphemia…it wasn't even that. It was **PRINCESS**…something or other, and that was it. After that, everyone was sputtering incoherent apologies, worried that she was going to have them gunned down for looking at her weird.

"Those two children died here, you know," she said softly. "They came here as political hostages, then the war happened and…"

"Yes, I know," Suzaku replied. "They stayed with my family while they were here?"

"They did? Oh, right, they were sent to the Japanese prime minister's family, and you're his…yes, that's right."

Suzaku seemed to be easing up a bit more. _And you two would have been about the same age, wouldn't you?_ Euphemia thought, looking at a ten year old Lelouch standing with his mother and little sister. He seemed so happy in that painting…although, the last time she saw him, after his mother's death, he wasn't happy at all. His eyes seemed so dark, so _vengeful. _

_Don't die with those hateful eyes,_ she prayed. _Please._

"Suzaku?" she asked. "Were they…were they happy here?"

"I remember…whenever Nunnally went anywhere, Lelouch was right behind her, describing everything she couldn't see. She didn't have anything, but she seemed content with that. And Lelouch…after we got to know each other, he tried to teach me to play chess, proclaimed me to be a hopeless case after a few weeks, and proceeded to trounce all of my father's military strategists."

Euphemia laughed out loud. "That is so like him!"

"I remember when I was a kid, most of the other kids my age were intimidated because of who my father was and expected me to be a miniature version of him."

_I couldn't possibly imagine what that's like,_ she thought with a smile.

"But Lelouch…I don't know if he ran into that sort of thing before hand and was sick of it, or coming from the world's number one superpower he didn't think that the leader of Japan was powerful enough to be intimidating, but either way, he wouldn't have any of that nonsense. He was, actually, the best friend I've ever had."

They both stared at the painting until Euphemia broke the silence. "Um, when he was here, Lelouch didn't, well, mention me or anything, did he?"

"Actually he did," Suzaku said. "He wanted me to tell you something."

"Really?" It seemed nearly impossible that Lelouch could have predicted that she would have come here several years after his death for Suzaku to tell her anything at all, but then again... "What was it?"

Suzaku looked around first to make sure no one was listening before he answered.

"Can you keep a secret?"

WWW

a/n Well, here it is. I actually laughed a few times while I was editing it. The other day I was reading the reviews for this story, you people are awesome, by the way, and I started thinking, "The next chapters already half done, there are all these people wanting to know what happens in the story you've deliberately drawn them into, and you spend your time playing videogames, you jerk." And so I've successfully guilt tripped myself into finishing this.

Some people have commented that Lelouch doesn't seem as smart in this story as he does in the cannon. Well, there are two very good reasons. First of all, I can only tell you about his plans beforehand if they later fail, because if they fail you need to know why, and if they succeed, telling you would kill the suspense. Also, I can't write a character smarter than myself without taking the laws of physics and probability and throwing them out the window, which I try to avoid.

By the way, does anyone know the names of Euphemia's body guards? There are two of them, a guy and a girl, and I can't find their names anywhere.

Oh well. Thanks for being awesome. If no one read or reviewed, I would have started doing something else ages ago.


	10. Chapter 10

Your Past, My Future

Chapter 10

a/n Some of you have shown concern that this story may be dead. I can only respond with the following quote by H.P. Lovecraft.

"That is not dead which can eternal lie, yet with strange eons even death may die."

Kyoshiro Todoh, Todoh of Miracles, was the only man to have won a battle against the Britannian Empire during the war. But the war was not over, and the Japanese people had a new man of miracles. Zero remembered him well. He admired much about the Japanese, and Todoh emulated their every ideal. And now, the first miracle man with the Four Holy Swords, awaited him.

Zero opened the door and entered the room alone, not wanting to insult his guests by bringing a body guard. Of course, if the guests knew what Zero knew, they would try to kill him on the spot.

They would fail, but it would be inconvenient nonetheless.

"Kyoshiro Todoh," he said. "It is truly an honor. How may I assist you?"

"Zero," he replied curtly. "Are you aware of the recent events concerning the JLF?"

"Yes." The leaders of the Japanese Liberation Front were recently assassinated. Even if the assassins were not under control of his own Geass, he would have been alerted in other ways. "Many former members of the Liberation Front have decided to honor the memory of their leaders by continuing their fight within my ranks. Is that why you have come?"

Todoh narrowed his eyes suspiciously and focused on Zero's hands. Zero's mask covered up any facial expression, but body language…he resisted the urge to hide his hands inside his cape, and instead held them up for closer scrutiny.

"The JLF has been fighting against Britannian tyranny for years, Zero. You have been leading the Black Knights for weeks. Shall I fight with you? Become a Black Knight? First I would know your intentions with my country."

"The JLF fought unsuccessfully for so many years, not because they lacked courage or will, but because they sought to do the impossible. They tried to champion a broken people, win with the support of the masses that had long since become content with less than freedom. I will…make them discontent."

"Do you really think it will be that simple?"

"The Japanese people never lacked the strength to defeat the forces stationed here, only the will. After their courage is redeemed, they will finish the fight the Britannians started seven years ago."

"The Britannian Empire will never allow that," Todoh said. "Even if they have to summon their forces from every corner of the earth, no matter what the cost in life or capital, they will never let my people live free."

Zero smiled behind his mask, then laughed openly. "I seldom meet a man with your perception Todoh. If we win here, the other seventeen areas under Britannian rule will gain hope for freedom of their own, and Britannia will be seen as weak to her enemies. Most of my men see only the here and now. They don't understand that victory here means the defeat of the greatest empire in the world. But you do. And if you understand that much, why have you kept fighting all these years?"

"Because I would rather die than live without pride! My people deserve more than to live as outcasts in their own land, they deserve more than what they've been given. I don't know if we can win, but I do know that we can fight."

"Well, then I suppose that makes us very different people, Todoh, because I know we can fight and win," Zero said. "And I have a fairly good idea how. Join me in my organization, and I will show you an empire lying in ruins."

WWW

"Well, that was boring," Mao muttered as they walked into Zero's office.

_Oh?_

"Yeah. When those five new-age samurais got here, you know what they were thinking? Let's join the Black Knights. And when they left? It was exactly the same. But then again, that wasn't why you wanted me listening in, was it? So go on, ask me what they were really after."

_What?_

"I'm sorry, did you say something? I really can't hear you."

"What?"

Mao grinned, as though the ability to cause Zero that minor inconvenience was noteworthy. "They're split down the middle. Two of them think you're responsible for killing the leaders of the Jolly Leap Frogs and that the heroes of justice thing is just you trying to, uh, hold on, I wrote this part down. Right, it's just you trying to 'glut yourself on the hopes and dreams of the Japanese people.' Nice. Two of the others think you're their best chance at fighting Britannia, and Todoh wants to find out more before he gets fancy on you with his sword."

_What do they know about C.C. and Jeremiah?_

"But yeah, unless you've got anything else, I'll go check on our royal prisoner."

"Do they know about C.C. and Jeremiah?" Zero said aloud.

"Ah, now that's where things get a little tricky," Mao replied. "Yes. Yes they do. However, Todoh wasn't sure from the Orange thing if the guy was really a double agent for you, and got the Just Like Friends to not kill him until they knew for sure. Also, while they think you may have sent assassins after their leaders, they don't know that we were the ones who raided their boat and freed their prisoners. That was pretty fun, by the way. We should do it again some time."

"I see." As long as the Britannian Empire continued to serve as a scapegoat, Todoh would have no reason to suspect anything. If they looked for a secret chain of command, incriminating paperwork, well, there wasn't any. Only four people knew about what happened, Zero, Mao, C.C., and Orange. "C.C.?" he asked, calling her phone. "Could you step into my office for a minute?"

Mao suddenly started laughing. "And you're not even doing it deliberately, are you?"

Zero stopped. "Doing what deliberately?"

"Pretending to be human!"

"Fascinating. I'll let you know when you start making sense again."

Mao laughed and leaned against a wall. "You know that's not what I meant."

"Then by all means, Mao, enlighten me."

"I mean that you're made out of wood and black paint, and try to carve out everyone out of something besides flesh to make your crip sis smile," he said. "But you know what the funny thing is? If she knew what you were doing for her, she'd kill you herself. And if anyone else knew, they'd kill you both."

Mao yelped and pulled out a gun. That was what alerted Lelouch that he had already pulled out his. "Do _not_ threaten my sister, Mao!" he ordered. "If you ever want to live to see another day, remember this. I killed you once when you threatened her, and if I have to kill you again to keep Nunnally safe, I will!"

"Okay, okay! Yikes, that was…pretty cool actually. Thought to action in nothing flat. I didn't know you could do that." The two of them stood there, pointing guns at each other. "So, uh, if I say I'm sorry, will you put your gun down?"

"After you."

"Just to be fair, you did pull out yours first."

"You can read my mind," Lelouch said. "You know that you're too valuable to kill needlessly."

"And I know that you don't really care right now. Come one, Lelouch, old buddy old pal, if you put your gun away, I promise I won't shoot you." Mao grinned. "I would not lie to you."

"Of course, I'm going to trust a psychopath with a gun, and while I'm toying with death, I'll go play chicken on the railroad tracks."

"Out of all the times to stop being predictable, you had to pick the time when you have a gun!"

"Then don't provoke me when I have a gun!"

"This whole thing is just you overreacting, you know. You are, in one word, overprotective. In two words you're trigger happy. You know what this is? It's your guilt. I'm an expert on this sort of thing. You just feel guilty about before when that poor little girl died in your war."

"Shut up, Mao, just _shut up!"_

"You're not the boss of me! I'm wearing sunglasses!"

Neither one of them would have gotten away alive had the door not opened. C.C. looked at them and sighed.

"Hey, beautiful!" Mao called. "Really, there is no situation that you being here can't make better!"

"Honestly," she said, "I can't leave you alone for ten minutes, can I?" She stood between them. "Now give me your guns. You too, Lelouch. And if either of you shoots me, I will become very cross."

Mao left the room unarmed. "You know, Lelouch," C.C. said, "just because your father controls the Geass directorate, it doesn't mean you can start your own."

"I know. Rolo was easier to control. He'd do anything I told him to, even when I was trying to kill him. Mao, on the other hand…but I knew there would be some risk when I invited him."

"I've been keeping an eye on him. He'll stay as long as staying is more entertaining than having all of you killed, and he seems fairly entertained. Was this what you wanted to talk to me about?"

"No," Zero said, sitting down. "Todoh and the Four Holy Swordsmen have joined us, and they suspect that I have been involved with the fall of the JLF. I believe that they will cooperate unless they find conclusive evidence, and the only people who know otherwise are you, Mao, and Orange."

"Is that it?"

"No. I need a set of contacts that can block my Geass. In my other timeline, I lost control of it a few weeks from now, and I don't want to take any chances."

"I see. I saw Euphemia on the news the other day. She seemed very…nice."

"She is nice. She died nice, covered in the blood of the people she had loved and slaughtered."

"Do you still blame yourself for that?"

"I did kill her, but no, I don't. I used my Geass on her on accident, and when I killed her she was no longer herself, so I don't feel guilty. It's odd. The only thing that does bother me is that I made a promise to her, and I broke it. All these people follow me because of the promises I give them. They put their hope in me, but I have yet to fulfill that hope."

"A leader is a dealer in hope," C.C. said.

"What?"

"That was something Napoleon once said. He was a lot like you, actually."

Zero smiled. In all the history of the world, there was only one Napoleon, only one who had successfully driven the Britannians out of their own land. "Did you have a contract with him?"

"No. His wife wouldn't have allowed it. I did have a contract with the man sent to kill him, though."

After driving the Britannians out, Napoleon was subsequently poisoned.

WWW

Lelouch sat alone in his office, working through the logistics of his organization. People were made of problems, and if they were to accomplish anything, he would have to solve them. He tried not to plan a way to kill Mao, not when he might be nearby. Instead Lelouch focused on the suggested organization chart Diethard had given him. Diethard was…not loyal, so to speak, but predictable, and that was close enough.

True, he had betrayed Zero in the end, but so had nearly everyone.

_Rats and sinking ships,_ he thought. _Just don't sink and you'll be fine._ Lelouch turned over the page and skimmed through the invasion plan. Most of the skirmishes that the Black Knights had been a part of since Narita were just to keep momentum, but _this, this_ could change everything. He jotted down a few notes to accommodate the involvement of Todoh and his men.

His phone rang.

"Hey Suzaku."

"L-lelouch?" Not Suzaku. She had his cellphone, but… "Lelouch? Is that really you?"

"Euphie." He'd been expecting this conversation, he'd planned for it. And yet, somehow, he wasn't ready. "Hey. I see Suzaku delivered the message."

"He told me you were alive," she said. "Oh, Lelouch, I don't believe this!"

"What, that I'm alive or that we're talking to each other?"

"I surprised that you've never tried to contact me before!" she cried. "I thought you were dead!" She stopped. "I probably shouldn't have said that last part out loud."

"Are you outside?"

"Yeah."

"People will assume I'm someone you've failed to have assassinated. You're the viceroy now; viceroys deal with this sort of thing all the time."

"Are you trying to be funny or cynical?"

Lelouch chuckled slightly. "You know, we should get together sometime. Nunnally would love to see you again."

"She can see again? I thought that after the…"

"Metaphorically."

"Oh."

"But if it's not too much short notice, could you come over tomorrow night work for you?"

"Well, sure, I think so, but I don't know where you live."

"You're using Suzaku's phone. Is he with you?"

"Uh-huh, he's right here pretending that he's not listening—no, that's okay, Suzaku, I don't mind."

"He knows where I live, he'll show you. You'll need an escort anyway, preferably someone who won't tell the world that I'm alive, which I'd rather keep underground for the time being."

"Yes, but it's not that simple. I can't just tell my security to leave me alone for an hour so I can reunite with my long lost brother, and if I try to give them the slip again, they might catch up with me when I'm with you, and then they'll think you're trying to kidnap me or something, and that would be even worse."

"Oh, Euphemia, how are you ever going to be a politician without learning to weave a web of lies at a moment's notice?"

"What?"

"Let's see, have you picked out a knight yet?" Lelouch asked, as if he didn't already know.

"No, that's one of the things I have to work on right now."

"So say you're doing an interview."

"I'm interviewing you to be my knight?"

"No, Suzaku. You're just doing it where I live."

"And no one will think that's…odd?"

"Of course not," Lelouch lied.

"Alright," Euphemia said. "So, I guess I'll see you then?"

"Of course," he said. _You could be the most valuable piece in the game. And I have promises to keep._

WWW

Kallen saw Lelouch at school the next day, fortunately. She hadn't seen him since he walked off with Zero, and she wasn't entirely sure he'd still be alive. After what Mao had said, well, he was full of crap, and Kallen knew Lelouch wasn't dangerous, but that didn't mean that Zero was going to take chances.

"So, what did you think?" On a bench in the park in broad daylight wasn't the most secure spot to discuss an illegal organization accused of terrorism, but it wasn't very crowded and she kept her voice down.

"About last night?"

"No, about math class. Yes, last night. I didn't see you since you left with the big guy himself."

"We talked," Lelouch said calmly. "I got the feeling that having you vouch for me meant a lot, and he wanted to know where to put me. Eventually he decided that I may have some aptitude as a strategist, and sent me to sector seven to see how things go."

"Wait, he said _that_ about _you?"_

"Yes."

"But—he—you know who he _is,_ right? He's like the _king_ of strategy. He regularly goes against twenty to one odds and comes out without a casualty. If he says that you'd make a good strategist, that's huge!"

"I, uh, play chess sometimes," he said weakly.

"Okay, good. Work with that. Between you and me, I'm pretty sure he does too."

Lelouch leaned back in the bench and stared at the sky thoughtfully. "So, why do you follow him?"

"Because he _wins,_ why else?"

"Is that it? Britannia hasn't lost a war in over two hundred years. You don't follow them."

"I know. But Zero's different," Kallen said. "He's different from anyone, actually. Did I ever tell you what I was doing before the Black Knights? I was a terrorist. I know people call the Black Knights terrorists, but they're not. Back then, we were all about collateral damage. Explosives? Toxic gas? It didn't matter what we used. I was angry, angry at Britannia for all they did, for all they took. I wanted to get back at them, and if some civilians got killed, well, they deserved it anyway. Then I would go to school, smile and laugh with everyone like the filthy hypocrite I was."

"Then Zero came, and he changed everything. Yes, he won battles, but the battles he won were worth fighting. He brought the war to the people who deserved it. He changed us from killers with explosives to something we don't have to be ashamed of, and he's going to change the world. Just watch, Lelouch. He's going to change everything."

WWW

a/n Sometimes I think that choosing where to break the chapter is the hardest part, apart from, you know, actually writing it. I'll probably regret this later, but you've been waiting long enough already. Remember those good old days when I would get a chapter out every other week? Yeah, that may never happen again. School, life, work, food, there's always things to distract me. But to all you people who haven't given up on me, this is for you. I hope to wrap this up in another two chapters.

By the way, in the Code Geass history, Napoleon managed to conquer England, which drove the Britannians to the American continent. I've been reading some Napoleon quotes, and they seem to fit Lelouch a lot. Physically unimpressive, strategic genius, chess motifs, fought against Brits. He was actually called the Petite General (with a French accent) for his army's size instead of his own, and Lelouch was often outnumbered. I thought about going back and heading my chapters with his quotes, but that seemed like too much work.


	11. Chapter 11

Your Past, My Future

Chapter 11

a/n I own nothing, at least that's copy righted. You know, since this story is set in Area Eleven, should I do something special for the eleventh chapter? On the other hand, the main character is Zero, and I skipped chapter zero entirely.

An antic grandfather clock ticked in the hallway. Lelouch resisted the urge to smash it. He shouldn't be this nervous, he told himself, but he couldn't help it. He hadn't seen Euphemia since he murdered her, and she hadn't seen him since he was ten. She was his greatest mistake, and for Lelouch's plan to work, he would have to draw her into things again.

The doorbell rang. Euphie and Suzaku stood behind the door. Lelouch paused for a moment, freezing into his memory the image of the two of them. As soon as they stepped inside, he'd make pawns of them, and they'd never be the same.

"Lelouch!" Euphie threw her arms around him. "It is you! You're…really tall."

"Euphie, you haven't changed a bit," he replied.

"I…haven't? Really?"

"Not since I saw you on the news yesterday. Come in."

Suzaku hesitated by the doorway. "I don't want to intrude on your family reunion. I'll just wait outside."

"Get in here, Suzaku, you'll do no such thing," Lelouch said. "We're all friends here, and if this were a real family reunion, I'd be pretending to be dead."

Euphemia laughed as she walked in, then stopped dead when she saw Nunnally.

"Euphemia," Nunnally said with a smile. "Is that really you?"

Euphemia didn't move. _Of course,_ Lelouch realized. The last time they saw each other, Nunnally could walk and see. Euphie knew she was still blind, but must have somehow figured that she could walk again.

"Take her hand," Lelouch whispered.

She nodded, snapping back into focus. "Nunnally! I could barely recognize you. Last time I saw you were just a little girl, and now you're a young woman!"

"And you're the viceroy!"

Euphemia's smile faltered, and although Nunnally couldn't see it, she seemed to sense it anyway.

"But, you never wanted to be, did you?" she said softly.

"I'm in over my head," Euphie admitted. "Cornelia wasn't planning to step down until after the Zero business cooled down, and now…well, a warzone was never my forte."

"No," Lelouch said sitting down, "but I've noticed that fighting fire with fire isn't nearly as effective as water."

Euphemia sat down too. "What do you mean?"

"I'll tell you," he said. "But first, let me ask you a question. Do you think that Suzaku is going to sit down some time tonight, or is he just going to stand over there and loom?"

Suzaku caught himself and sat down quickly, awkwardly. He'd been as stiff as a soldier the whole evening, for some reason. Did he not feel like he belonged here? He had been in love with Euphemia before she died, and knowing Suzaku, that had probably happened when they first met.

"He saved my life a couple months ago," Lelouch said offhandedly.

"He did?" Euphemia asked. She turned to Suzaku. "You did?"

"He's making it sound like a bigger deal than it was," Suzaku mumbled.

"You did take a bullet for me," Lelouch said.

"Wait, start at the beginning," Nunnally instructed. "I never heard this story either."

"Well, do you remember the Shinjuku incident?" he began.

"Yes," Euphie replied. "I visited the ruins there when I first arrived."

"Well, I was there when it happened. I was on my way home when the terrorists and the military started fighting, and my luck dropped me in the middle of it. A squad of soldiers found me, and their officer gave the order to shoot first and identify the bodies later."

"Oh dear."

"He took out a handgun, and I imagine in order to avoid the blame if I turned out to be innocent, handed it to Suzaku and ordered him to fire."

"Oh _dear_."

"So Suzaku, being Suzaku, gave his commanding officer the gun back and told him he could shove it where the sun doesn't shine."

"That's not what I said," Suzaku protested.

"That was the gist of it," Lelouch replied. "Though maybe giving him his gun back wasn't your best idea, after he, you know, shot you."

"I got better," he said, trying not to meat Euphemia's admiring gaze.

Sayoko came in and served them tea.

"But anyway, fire and water," Lelouch said.

"Oh, please, Lelouch, I don't want to trouble you with my problems."

"Don't be silly. I don't want to draw you into my problems either, but I would if I had to. Anyway, I assume that you have advisors telling you how to handle the Zero problem. They're saying that you can defeat Zero through sheer military power. Draw him out of hiding, lay a few traps perhaps, and finish him off. He started this war, and when he'd dead, it will all end."

Euphie nodded. "That's almost exactly what they tell me."

"And they're all wrong. Zero didn't start this war. This is a continuation of what started seven years ago, and all the rage and pride and dreams of the Japanese people are made manifest in the Black Knights. You could try to kill him. They'd probably just put another man in a mask and a cape and keep up the façade, though, and the man's slippery. Cornelia tried to kill him, and she's better at that sort of thing than you are. Consider, though, the alternative. If you cut off the head of a snake, the rest does stop moving, but the same thing happens if you cut out its heart."

"They aren't fighting for revenge, no matter what people tell you," he continued. "You kick a man when he's down for revenge, but you don't tackle a giant. They're fighting for a better future. I could kill Suzaku right now if I wanted to, and the police would take my word for it that I had a good reason to. Is there any justice in that? In any of that?" He tried to keep the bitterness out of his voice. "But the Britannians allow it because it is convenient for them, and they're the ones with the biggest guns. But what if you changed that? If you give them a place where they can be Japanese instead of just Elevens, where they can be treated like human beings, you will be the hero that Zero never could be. The people will withdraw their support, and the Black Knights will fall."

Euphemia opened her mouth and closed it again. "That could work," she whispered. "It could, and even if it doesn't stop Zero, it would…but that's a huge change. I can make simple laws, but even as the viceroy, I don't have that kind of power."

"No, but as they say, desperate times call for desperate measures," Lelouch said. "Zero managed to kill or capture both of you predecessors in the last few months, and people are scared. If you tried this during a time of peace, the people would laugh at you, but if they think you have a plan that can restore order, they'll be tempted. Who does have the authority to do this?"

"Schneizel."

"Oh, well in that case there should be no problem. I remember playing him in chess when we were younger. He would never accept trades just to clear the board, and even when I lost, I still had more than half my pawns."

Euphemia frowned.

"He doesn't like senseless violence or excessive use of force," Lelouch translated. "It's inelegant."

"Ah." She paused for a moment. "Do you…do you think that Cornelia is still alive?"

"Of course. I doubt she's comfortable, but if they killed her, they'd gloat."

"Good, because when she's free, she's going to want to see you again."

"Will she? I remember that you were always her favorite sister, and she was always kind to Nunnally, but besides that all I can remember about her is the time she threw me in a lake."

"I remember that!" Nunnally said.

"Wait, what happened?" Suzaku asked.

"Cornelia picked me up, and threw me in a lake," Lelouch explained.

"No, I mean why."

"Lelouch put a frog on my head," Euphemia said.

"You did?" Suzaku asked. "That doesn't seem like you at all."

"I didn't know you could scream that loud," Nunnally said to Euphemia.

"I was five," Lelouch replied defensively to Suzaku. "Five-year-olds aren't known for their excessive intelligence."

"Wait, you couldn't have been five," Euphemia said. "I know I was seven at the time, making you, what? Eight? Anyway, why are we talking about this? Oh yeah, of course Cornelia would love to see you again. She was devastated when she heard that you two had died. We all were." She fell silent for a moment. "Do you think you'll ever come back home?"

"This is my home."

"You know what I mean, Lelouch. I know you didn't leave…on the best of terms, but we're your family. What harm could it do?"

_What harm could it do?_ It could do a wonderful amount of harm, if he planned it right, and Zero usually did. There was enough snake in him to make his way through _that_ nest of vipers, and once he was there, how hard would it be to smuggle in the most loyal of the Black Knights as his personal guard? Heck, with his Geass, he wouldn't even need his Knights. Even if the emperor knew what he could do, from the inside Lelouch could reduce the imperial palace to a smoking ruin.

And Nunnally would be with him every step of the way.

Lelouch shook his head. He would risk his life, he would risk the lives of his knights, but he would not risk hers. "No, not now. Later, maybe." _When the emperor is dead._

"Oh. Okay, but Lelouch? Clovis was killed a few months ago thinking you were dead. Don't take too long."

"I won't."

Euphemia looked at the clock. "Well, it's getting late. I should get going. It's been nice seeing you again."

"Don't be a stranger," Lelouch said getting up. "Our doors are always open."

"Oh, I'll be back," she said. "Now that I know where you live. Now that I know _that_ you live."

Suzaku and Euphemia left, but Euphie stopped and turned around. She looked thoughtful. "Lelouch? You're right. If it weren't for Zero, I wouldn't have a chance of getting your idea passed." She gave him a meaningful look. "Is Cornelia really alright?"

Lelouch narrowed his eyes. Euphemia nodded seriously. His eyes widened. _She figured it out!_ She managed to do it again. Either he had underestimated her or he was getting sloppy. Not that it mattered, though. She didn't turn against him last time she found out that he was Zero, and nothing substantial had changed this time around—except that Cornelia was his prisoner. Hopefully that wouldn't make a big difference. Even then, he still had his Geass.

"I doubt Zero's so foolish as to mess with someone like her," he said.

She grinned broadly. "I _knew_ it!"

Suzaku, who had gone ahead to get the car door for her, turned around. "Knew what?"

"It's nothing," Lelouch said quickly. "By the way, are those snipers on that rooftop over there?"

"Yeah, they follow me around everywhere," Euphemia said casually. "Just ignore them. They're pretending to be invisible."

"Comforting." They drove away, and Lelouch stayed outside on his porch long after everyone else had left. "Well, I did it," he said to the darkness. "I promised to help you with the Special Administration Zone, and I did." He smiled. "What's the point of repeating history if you can't fix your mistakes?" Euphemia had no idea what she was getting into with her project. She was a remarkable person in many ways, and had been the only person to trounce him so completely before Lelouch realized that he didn't have to win against her. And yet, she was so perfectly innocent that she thought that you could drop a stone in a lake and not get a few ripples.

"But what do I know?" he said to himself. He'd been wrong before. Maybe the Special Administration Zone wouldn't be a complete disaster again. Maybe this unending catastrophe of war and death would end, and peace would be won through peace. That would be horribly anticlimactic, and Lelouch hoped it wouldn't end that way. Well, at least mostly.

His phone rang.

"Ohgi?

"Zero, sir," he answered. "We are ready to invade Kaminejima Island. We can leave as soon as you get here."

Kaminejima Island, the Island of the gods. Everything ended there for Zero, twice. He could get to the Sword of Akasha from there, maybe even the emperor himself. Lelouch smiled to himself. He could find a new beginning there this time, or, if he really did meet the emperor, end it all.

"Sir?" Ohgi asked. "What exactly do you expect to find there?"

Zero didn't often share details with his men. For all they knew, it could be a drill, or they could be charging into the jaws of death. He respected the way they followed him regardless.

"I expect everything, Ohgi," he said. "I'll be there within the hour."

WWW

Mao spun around in his swively chair. Some people could focus on a swively chair, but Mao couldn't even finish a game of FreeCell. It was all about perspective. He couldn't tell himself that the room was spinning around a stationary point, not when his stomach was doing calisthenics. A lot of people had different perspectives. Most of them were wrong.

Todoh flickered toward him, or at least it looked like that with him walking and Mao spinning. Mao stepped out of the chair and stood still until the room stopped spinning. Todoh thought disparaging thoughts, but waited patiently.

"Todotodoh," Mao said. "Dotoh. Todoh." He extended his hand. "Mao."

Todoh examined the hand for a bit longer than polite before taking it. "I understand you're the head of interrogation."

"Torso too," he replied. "I'm still working on the limbs, though. And I suppose you're just familiarizing yourself with everyone else in this merry band of heroes." He dug through the man's darkest memories. One of these days he'd meet someone who had never done anything he was ashamed of, and then Mao would be fantastically screwed. It hadn't happened yet.

"I suppose, yes," Todoh said evenly.

_Filthy liar._ "And you are not at all investigating our enigmatic executive, and certainly not trying to pin a murder on him."

For an instant Todoh's face twitched—a slight narrowing of the eyes—but the moment passed, and his face was once again carved from stone—_as if that made a difference._ "Now why would I do that?"

Mao realized that he was probably smiling more than he should, but he couldn't help it. "You tell me. You had the word 'bloodhound' written behind your faces from the moment you got here."

"Zero had the most to gain. It could have been Britannia, but there's no point in assassinating the leader of one organization without the other. Perhaps whoever tried to kill Zero failed, or hasn't happened yet. I do not accuse him. I only wish to know the truth."

_If you knew half the truth, you'd kill him on sight._ Of course, if he knew the other half, he'd kill Mao too.

"Well, if you want to know about Zero, you've come to the right guy. Anyone else you talk to is going to be lying or wrong." Todoh and the Four Holy Swords had already talked to several people, C.C. included. She got fed up with them pretty quickly, and when push came to shove came to blatant accusation, she told them that she did not enjoy her stay as a prisoner of the JLF, she did not care that their leaders were killed, and she cared even less who did it. Mao grinned. She could stare down a lion when she wanted to. "But as for me, I know Zero better than I know myself."

Zero thought that as he left Mao something to entertain himself with, he wouldn't cause any trouble. The inconsistency with that idea could hold several coffins.

"Do you think he did it?"

He could get Todoh to kill Zero, but what would be the point? It would be as much fun as going to the police, and nearly as inelegant.

"Zero kills people," Mao said. "He's not afraid to get his hands dirty, in fact, it's almost like he goes out of his way to keep everyone else's hands clean."

Todoh raised an eyebrow. "Go on."

There wasn't any point in winning if you didn't have fun, and Mao wasn't sure that he wanted to win at all. You could die or watch the credits scroll down, but either way, a game over was a game over.

"You know what I'm saying? What I'm really trying to say is this." Kallen. She worshiped the ground Zero walked on; she'd jump when he said jump, and hover until he said land, and where there was love, there was at least as much hate. And if you cut someone up and put her back together inside out, she was still the same person. There was little difference between a saint and a psychopath from the right perspective, and maybe only Mao knew that he was neither. He was just enjoying the game. "Zero knows how to cook."

"Cook?"

If he could get Kallen to kill him, the only thing better would be to get Nunnally to do it. All the parts were already there, and it would be enough of a challenge to be interesting. He grinned. "Yes. Lasagna, cake, _pizza._ He can cook it all. Me, I can't cook anything. Never eat anything I cook. It might kill you. The only thing that I can make that isn't fatal is cyanide, and let me tell you, nothing is more awkward than having someone ask you what you're laughing at instead of dying."

_Cook up a plan, cook up a scheme…_ Todoh struggled to find some hidden meaning behind his words. Mao managed not to laugh.

WWW

Kallen checked and rechecked the systems of the Guren. She hadn't had a chance to use it in a real fight since Narita, and she had started to hunger again for the speed and power she experienced before.

"I take it you are Kallen."

Kallen turned around and saw a dark skinned Indian woman with blonde hair and a white lab coat. "Yeah," she replied. "You're new?"

The woman nodded. "Mostly I followed my child here."

"You have a kid here?" Kallen asked. The woman couldn't have been older than thirty. "How old is he?"

"Seven months, almost to the day," she said, stroking the painted metal of the Guren.

It clicked. "Oh, you mean you designed my Knightmare," Kallen realized. "Wait, you designed my Knightmare? That's amazing!"

"You're too kind," she said. "My name's Rakshata, by the way. I'd like to know how the Guren performs in combat."

"What can I say? The Guren's perfect."

Rakshata laughed. "Perfect? If it were perfect, I wouldn't have been able to design it, and you wouldn't have been able to pilot it. No one could. Nonetheless, I look forward to seeing you pilot it firsthand tonight."

"You're coming with us?"

"Of course. There wouldn't be much point to raiding a Britannian research facility without a scientist present."

"So Kaminejima is a research facility now?" Kallen asked, sounding more bitter than she meant to. "First I've heard about it. Of course, no one told where we were going until today." It shouldn't bother her. It wasn't like she needed to know, and the less people who knew, the less chance information could be leaked, but Zero trusted her, didn't he? That green-haired woman probably knew, and that _creep_ Mao…

"I know exactly what you mean," Rakshata laughed. "Kids and their secrets. He'll grow out of it eventually."

"How do you know how old he is?" Kallen asked. "No one even knows what he looks like."

She shrugged, tapping her pipe. "No, but I talked to him. His Hindi is pretty basic, but his English is almost as good as his Japanese, if not better."

Kallen shrugged. "So is mine." She didn't have an accent that anyone at school could notice, and no one knew she was half Britannian unless she told them. She realized that Rakshata probably didn't.

"Exactly," Rakshata continued. "So if Zero speaks both perfectly, and he started learning English seven years ago after the Britannians took over, then he couldn't be much older than you."

Kallen wasn't sure what she thought of that idea. In a way it made since. Kallen had made up a background for Zero, about how he had fought during the first war and was back for revenge, but if he was old enough seven years ago, why did he wait until now? On the other hand, giving Zero a precise age felt wrong somehow, like trying to make him merely human. She knew she was being irrational, but people failed. Zero would have to be a lot more than human to keep his impossible promises, and to tie him down with human things like an age…

"A lot of people learned English before the Brits made us," she said, a little defensively.

Rakshata shrugged. "It's just a theory. Even if I'm right, it wouldn't make a difference."

"Still, you shouldn't share it with people. Some people might not like the idea of following someone my age."

She frowned. "What difference would his age make if he wins?"

"None, but people are, you know, funny that way."

Rakshata put her pipe back in her mouth without comment as Zero's voice came over the intercom. "Black Knights, load into the submarine. We are ready to move out."

Kallen grinned as she jumped into the cockpit. _Finally._

WWW

Kallen was the heart of the inferno, her right hand the grip of destruction, and her footprints the marks of ruin. The Sutherland before her swelled like a cancerous tumor and exploded into flame, and the flame dispersed into nothing.

_Oh how I've missed this!_ Kallen thought as the futile resistance of the island's standing forces scattered. She duck and wove around the remaining gunfire and latched her claw onto another KightmareShe was done running, done hiding. She was fury and vengeance and—the battlefield fell silent. Kallen looked around and realized that the last enemy Knightmare had fallen. _Well, that was easy,_ she thought, slightly disappointed. Behind her, the machines lay cut to pieces and shot full of holes, but half of them were warped and melted by her hand.

"You fight well," Todoh said from his Knightmare.

"Um, thanks," she said. She grew up hearing stories about the famous miracle man, and how he had managed to win a battle against Britannia without any Knightmare frames. It felt weird meeting a childhood hero, and even more leaving him in the dust.

They drove into the cave where the research facility was. The scientists and remaining soldiers were huddled in a corner trying not to look frightening. In the back was a huge black and gold Knightmare that, despite the battle that just ended, wasn't even being used.

"Ah, the Gawain," Zero said, as though he recognized it. "And right on schedule too. My compliments to Schneizel's R. and D."

"Wait, so we invaded this place just to get you a new Knightmare?" Tamaki asked. "What's so great about that one?"

"It is the first and only eighth generation Knightmare to date."

"So they're up to eight now," Tamaki noted. "And it's three times as big. Can that thing even move?"

"It can fly."

Tamaki stopped dead. "Can I have one?"

"We'll see how long it takes to reverse engineer it."

Rakshata arrived behind the forces with C.C., Mao, and the other noncombatants. "Flying isn't the problem," she said. "Making it energy efficient is the only tricky part. I'll have it ready in a month." She frowned. "But I'm on the verge of a breakthrough with the Gefjun Disturber, and I don't want to push that back again."

"So are we just taking the thing and getting out of here?" Kallen asked.

"Not at all," Zero replied, descending from his Knightmare. "Squads Zero and One, stay here and watch the prisoners, everyone else, I want you guarding the entrance. Rakshata, we don't have much time before reinforcements arrive, but gather as much information as you can from what they were researching here. Mao, get what you can from the prisoners and help Rakshata however possible. C.C., if you could assist me…"

C.C. and Zero approached something attached to the wall. It seemed to be a large and intricate door made entirely out of metal, but Kallen didn't see any way of opening it short of breaking it down.

They stood in front of it. "Any ideas?"

C.C. shook her head. "I've never seen this one before. You'd know how to fix it better than I would."

"I've never fixed one of these before. You have."

"That was a different me."

"So? If you've done it before, you can do it again."

"I could figure it out, but that would take more time than we have," C.C. replied. "Although…the thought elevator is based off of memory and thought, so try remembering what it was like last time."

"I am remembering."

"Well, remember harder."

Kallen shook her head. Here they were in a secret enemy research facility, and all Zero wanted to do was stare at a wall. He probably had a good reason, but the only thing more boring at staring at a wall was staring at someone else staring at a wall. Off to the side, Rakshata was trying to hack onto one of the computers.

"Well, the password's not 'pudding,'" she muttered. "I guess that proves that _he_ isn't in charge of this." Rakshata turned to Mao. "Could you do me a favor and squeeze the password out of our prisoners?"

"Sure thing." Mao turned to a group of prisoners huddled together with their heads down and called out, "Hey, you, egghead in the middle. Yes, Eddie, I'm talking to you. What's the password?"

One of the Britannian's looked up from the group incredulously and more than a little frightened. "How did you know my name?"

Mao shrugged. "How do you know your name? Actually, password first, then name."

"Um, you understand, sir, that with security protocols and all, I do not know the access codes. Only one member of each lab unit has the codes, and he, um—"

"Died," another Britannian supplied. "Killed himself a few minutes ago."

"Right," the first man, Eddie apparently, continued. "Security protocol, sir, mandatory suicide and all. I'm sorry I can't be of assistance."

"Ah, that's too bad," Mao said sympathetically. "Did your imaginary friend stuff himself in the imaginary incinerator too? Or is there a real incinerator here?"

"Uh—"

"Hold that thought." Mao turned back to Rakshata. "It's trombone. Every other letter is upper-case, and the last E is a three."

"What?" Eddie squawked. "But—why did you ask me what the code was if you already knew?"

"Yeah, a lot of things don't make sense," Mao said conversationally. "Oh lookee, shiny lights!"

Without warning, brilliant red light flooded the room through the cracks on the wall Zero was working with.

"_What the—_I think I missed something," Kallen gasped to herself.

C.C. smiled smugly at Zero. "Told you."

"I don't know what I'd do without your centuries of experience in trans-dimensional travel."

C.C. laughed lightly. "Shall we get going then? If we leave now, we can kill the emperor and get back before it's time to go."

Zero hesitated, then shook his head. "I will go, but I'll go alone."

C.C. narrowed her eyes. "I won't have you die on me. I'm not going to interfere with your ambitions, but when you start taking foolish risks—"

"I've considered the risks. The emperor cannot finish his project without you, and I'd make terrible bait if I were dead. You can protect me best by staying here."

"Hold on a second!" Kallen called out, getting out of the Guren. "I really don't understand half of what you're talking about, but it sounds like you have a dangerous plan to kill the emperor, you're going to do it alone, and you want to leave behind about a hundred people who would be willing to die for you."

C.C. looked at Kallen as though she had never seen before, then turned back to Zero. "Hey, I have an idea," she said. "Why don't you take her with you? She's more expendable than you are."

"Yeah, I—I don't like the way you phrased that, but _yes_, if I can come with you, I'd rather go than stay here waiting to see whether you come back alive."

Zero paused to consider that before giving in. "Do you still have your visor?"

"My visor?" Before they had decent funding, the Black Knights all wore visors to cover their faces. "Yeah, I have one in the cockpit."

"Wear it," Zero instructed. "You will keep your eyes covered at all times. Also, I'm afraid you will have to leave the Guren here."

She stopped. "I can't take it with me?"

C.C. laughed. "You'll be going up a thought elevator," she said, as though that should mean something to her. "If it can't think, it can't come with you."

Kallen shrugged. She fought against Britannia long before she had a Knightmare to pilot. "Okay, I'm ready."

"Good," Zero said. "Orange!"

Jeremiah pivoted his Knightmare towards them. He hadn't gotten out of it since they came here. "Yes sir?"

"Q-1 and I will be gone for a moment. If Britannian reinforcements arrive while we're gone, take the Guren, the Gawain, and everyone else and leave. Do not fight or engage the enemy to buy us time, just leave. If I do not contact you within the week, I have further instructions in my office which I want disclosed."

Orange hesitated, but only slightly. "Understood sir."

Zero turned back to Kallen. "Q-1, if you will come this way?"

Kallen stood with Zero before the glowing wall. Looking closely, she expected to see some control panel, but there wasn't even a power cord. Though if Zero could kill a tyrant on the other side of the world with it…she realized that she understood none of what was going on. But she didn't need to. As long as Zero was in charge of everything, it'd all work out. "So, how does this thing work?" she asked as the red light started getting brighter.

"It's odd, actually," he said. "After all the times I've used this, I have no idea."

WWW

There was no sun in C's World, but the clouds illuminated the Sword of Akasha with the orange light of a perpetual dawn. The shrine looked different from the last two times he was there, but beyond superficial differences in the stone structures, there was no emperor. Zero sighed and closed the eye slot of his mask.

_No luck to speak of,_ he cursed. He knew it was a slight chance to begin with, catching the Emperor alone in is personal study, but a little luck could change the entire course of the war. He didn't have nearly enough resources to take on the entire Britannian army, but he'd just have to find another way to assassinate the old tyrant.

Because Kallen was here, he should have pulled out a gun for the sake of appearances, but it wouldn't make a difference, really. Kallen pulled out her gun instinctively before she even realized where they were, but finding no enemies, she started looking around.

"Holy crap!" she said, looking over the edge. "We're floating! How are we floating? Where are we?"

"Alone, unfortunately," Zero replied. "This is a project the Emperor is working on, and he frequents the place occasionally. It was a slim chance that I'd catch him here, but it was not a chance I could pass up."

"So, you've actually met the guy before? In person?"

He dropped hints occasionally, though mostly just for the air of mystery. "Yes. There is…history between us. And blood. A great deal of it, but there will be much more before I'm finished."

"What…what is this place for?" Kallen seemed dazed, overwhelmed. Zero might have been the first time he came here too, if the emperor had not been there to focus him with hatred, and he hadn't had previous experience with what could only be described as magic.

"I confess I know little about this world, but this structure is called the Sword of Akasha." Zero kept an eye on the entrance. They didn't have time to waste here, but if the Emperor arrived, then it wouldn't matter whether they made it back. "With this, he means to kill death, individual consciousness, time. Life, too, by association. I think he imagines that he can recreate the world to make up for all the senseless wars he's caused."

"Huh."

Zero hesitated. The chance of the emperor strolling in here was slim, and the chance that Britannian reinforcements would arrive on the island was definite. "We should go, Q-1. We're wasting time here."

"Na…o…to."

Zero turned quickly. "What?"

Kallen stood at the edge of the abyss with one foot over the edge. Her visor dangled from her fingertips as she stared, as though dreaming, at nothing. Naoto? He was Kallen's brother, wasn't he? He led her resistance cell before Ohgi. "Q-1? It's too dangerous to stay here. We should leave."

Kallen stared off into the distance. "Can…Naoto come with us?"

"What? There's no one out there."

"Yes he _is,_" she protested. "He's right here, I can _hear_ him!" She reached outwards about to fall off the edge.

"What are you doing?" Zero grabbed onto her shoulder and tried to pull her back. He knew there were risks to bringing her here, but he didn't expect this. Was there a defense here against people who didn't have a Geass? No, Suzaku could come here.

"He's…right…here."

"You're brother's dead, Q-1," he shouted. "Throwing yourself off a cliff won't change that! Kallen, please! I need you."

She gasped for breath as though she were underwater and fell backwards into his arms. Her visor fell off the edge into oblivion. "I—I can still hear him."

"We should go."

She nodded and they started for the exit. Kallen stopped and glanced over her shoulder. "You really didn't hear anything?"

"No."

"But—"

"Q-1, I owe you an explanation, and I promise that I will give it to you, but this is neither the time nor the place for one."

"Right, Zero. Of course, Zero. I'm right behind you."

They went down the thought elevator and found the research lab just as they had left it.

"Well, it looks like someone had fun at the family reunion," Mao grinned.

Zero glared at him. He had gone too far—no, he was referring to Kallen. "Orange, have the reinforcements arrived yet?"

"No, Zero sir," Jeremiah replied. "We have time yet."

"Good. Rakshata, have you gotten everything you need?"

"Sure, sure. We got the major access codes, and we'll just take the computers with us."

"Mao, do the scientists know anything important?"

"Important? That depends. Cassio knows how to juggle, and Antony can do a rubix cube. So no, they don't."

"Then there's no point in bringing them with us."

As the others left, C.C. worked the thought elevator back to how it was before, and Zero had a few words with the huddled scientists about what they did and did not see.

WWW

It was getting late when they returned to their base, even by Zero's standards. It was nearly four in the morning, but instead of worrying about getting a decent night's sleep—a lost cause by now—he was stalling. He smiled bitterly behind his mask. He was terrified, really, he dreaded what he was going to do, but he couldn't do otherwise without sowing his own destruction.

"What they were working on was amazing," Rakshata went on, continuing her report enthusiastically. "Crude, occasionally, and unethical without question, but _amazing._ The Druid System AI is unlike anything I've ever seen, and the neural interface system could revolutionize Knightmare frames, if you don't mind getting your head cut open for the cerebral implants. Again, unethical." She paused. "I also found a great deal about something called a 'Geass canceller,' and as much as I don't want to discount someone else's research as superstitious nonsense, but it seems like a lot of superstitious nonsense, unless someone…tries to kill you with magic."

Zero wasn't sure if he could restore Jeremiah to his former state, or even if he wanted to, but the Geass canceller would be useful against the Geass Directorate.

"How much longer until the Gefjun Disturber is operational?"

Rakasha shrugged. "It can handle a diameter of thirty meters or so, but it will be a while before its ready for the scale you want."

"If you installed the generators into a moving circuit, would that help the range?"

She frowned. "Like a whirlpool, you mean? It could work, I suppose. What do you have in mind? Are you going to attach the generators to a bunch of Knightmares and have them run around everyone?"

"I like to know my options. That is all, then."

Rakshata nodded and exited his office. Kallen was waiting outside. Zero motioned her to enter. She looked anxious, more off balance than he had ever seen her. No, she had been like this once, that night that ended the Black Rebellion, with his mask in pieces at his feet.

"I would like to ask you a few questions about what happened on the Sword of Akasha."

She nodded and sat down.

"The Sword of Akasha allows access to the mutual consciousness of the human race," Zero explained. The Emperor seeks to change that consciousness to eliminate all separation. There would be no difference between the living and the dead, there would be no lies—" He stopped, considering something that he had never thought of before. _Would he…no, he wouldn't oppose C.C. in that matter. Or…_either way, that was for another time. "There would be no lies, except the ones people tell themselves, although I know little else except that the emperor does not have everything he needs to commence Ragnarok." He paused. "I understand you encountered your brother."

She nodded, but didn't speak.

"Did you see him or just hear him?"

"I heard him," she whispered. She fell into a grin. "Sorry, I'm a little freaked out by all of this. I was fine until…yeah."

"Could you hear anyone else?"

"No."

"Could he hear you?"

"I…I don't know. I could barely hear anything at first, then I thought I was just imagining it, then I started listening for it, and…and he seemed so _scared,_ like he was drowning, and ready to pull me under just to breathe." She took a deep breath to stop trembling. "Do you think that the emperor can really…"

Zero shook his head. "Memories are integral to that plane of existence. And when someone dies, death corrupts the mind so even your memories are tainted by it." He thought of Shirley, lying in her own blood, even though he saw her at school every day, and Nunnally, on the final day, lost in that impossible explosion, now at home. And there was his own mother, riddled with bullets and put in her coffin, waiting for him with a smile on the Sword of Akasha ready to destroy the world.

"Nothing can bring them back," he whispered. "But it is interesting how you could communicate with a deceased blood relative." None of his family did, but he did shoot Clovis and Euphemia personally, and he doubted that they would want to talk to him afterwards. And Nunnally, well, he was as responsible for her death as for everyone's. "Let us assume that the emperor can do the same. He would have been able to talk to Clovis minutes after I killed him."

"So?" Kallen asked. "You never tried to hide it."

"No, but I killed him before I had my mask."

Kallen gasped. "Did he recognize you?"

"I assumed that the dead would keep their secrets, which they apparently do not. And if Clovis knows, then the emperor knows. And if my enemies know who I am, I have no reason to keep anything from my friends."

He had nothing to be afraid of, at least that's what he wanted to believe. And if Kallen was going to find out, it would be best for her to find out on his terms. Lelouch took off his mask.

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a/n Huh, I guess I did do something special for chapter eleven. That was completely unintentional, but so was everything else. Just to clear things up, yes I do mean to finish this story in the next chapter, but just like the anime had a sequel, so will this. And as much as I like cliff hangers, I will not end it like in the anime. I mean really, how can you end something mid-gunfire? What kind of ending is that anyway? A dramatic cliffhanger, now, that's different. Also, before you ask why Lelouch would help Euphemia do something that could destroy the Black Knights, well, first of all, he promised to help her with the Special Administration Zone, and despite his lies, repeating history is his chance to keep the promises he couldn't before. Also, it works out with his own plans, which you'll see later. I don't know much about the Sword of Akasha, so a lot of that I'm making up, but the Emperor mentions speaking to Clovis posthumously, and after Euphie dies, the first thing the Emperor says is, "He did it!" Or maybe the Emperor is crazy and hallucinates occasionally.


	12. Chapter 12

Your Past, My Future

Chapter 12

a/n Well, this is the last chapter, and it only took me, how many years? Hopefully, by the end of this chapter, I'll have a better title for the sequel than Your Past, My Future, part two.

Kallen looked at the obsidian mask on the table and at Lelouch sitting patiently in Zero's costume. She wanted to sit down.

"If this is a joke…" she started. No, Zero was too serious and Lelouch wasn't nearly that stupid. Or suicidal. "If I'm…" No, she didn't think she was dreaming. If she was still on that floating sword thing… "Okay, what's the deal here?"

"I assumed it was obvious." It was the sort of thing Zero would say, in the sort of way he'd say it, but Kallen wasn't buying it.

"Oh no. I was here the first time I _invited_ you to join the Black Knights, Lelouch. You were right here, _Zero_ was over there, you two talked for a bit, and…and so unless you're a body double or…" _a usurper_—no, Zero wouldn't get killed by some high school kid—"or something…"

"I've mentioned this before, but anyone can wear a costume," Lelouch said. "And anyone can use a tape recorder."

"A tape recorder," she repeated skeptically.

"The conversation was brief and only you and I were speaking, and I knew what you were going to talk about. It's more complicated with people I don't know very well."

Kallen thought about the boy she knew from the student council. He always seemed so…aloof, confidently intelligent, and trying to pretend he wasn't looking down at you. Some girls liked that sort of thing, but Kallen wasn't sure that it couldn't irritate the heck out of her. Zero was intelligent and confident too, but on an _entirely_ different level, and he didn't just watch things happen, he _made_ them happen.

"If it helps," Lelouch added, "You aren't the same person at school as you are here."

"I was Kozuki long before I was Stadtfield!" she snapped. She tried to calm herself. How many people in the Black Knights had wanted to know who they were working for? Lucky her. "Alright, so if you are Zero, why are you telling me this?"

"Because I trust you. And because you need to know."

"Oh, you trust me now. That's nice to know. It would really suck if I got in my Knightmare and fought a Britannian army for someone who didn't. And would you mind putting your mask back on? Your face makes me want to hit you."

Lelouch picked up the mask and put it on his face. "The Black Knights follow me because I give them victories, but if they knew everything, only a few would follow still. You are one of those few."

"And who are the others?"

"C.C. and Orange know, and Mao found out on his own," Zero said. "So including you, there's only four."

"And now the emperor."

"Yes."

Now Kallen did sit down. "So what's the deal with the other three? All three of them are people you brought in yourself, and they never acted like regular recruits."

"As I said, Mao figured it out on his own. He is much more astute then he pretends to be, and I wanted to keep an eye on him, so I offered him a position. I do not trust him, but he has not reported me to the enemy, and for the time being he is more useful than he is dangerous. Orange's original loyalty is to a woman who was assassinated several years ago without much concern. I offered him justice for the murder, and he accepted. C.C. was involved with the emperor's Ragnarok project, but she decided that the world Ragnarok would create was not the one she wanted. The emperor cannot complete the project without her cooperation, and I have offered her my protection."

Zero was usually more tightlipped than this. There were more questions she wanted to ask him, but most she didn't want to know the answer to, and only one question mattered. "So what do you want me to do?"

"Just wait," Zero said, "and be ready. I haven't caused enough trouble for the emperor to consider me a threat, and he has a noose around my neck he doesn't think I know about. That will change soon, Kallen, and when it does, I'll need to be able to rely on you."

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The confrontation went about as well as he had suspected. Part of Zero was sure that he would have left with a black eye, but she didn't even pull out her gun on him. Of course, he left a few things out. Kallen didn't need to know about his heritage, and she wasn't ready to know about the Geass yet. She would, later, but for now it would be best to do things one step at a time.

The days passed. Lelouch may have been the only person not surprised when Suzaku was knighted, but the rest of the Black Knights were.

"We cannot allow this," Deithard insisted. "If Suzaku becomes a symbol to the Japanese, then we will fall."

"What's the big deal?" Kallen asked. "He's a decent pilot, but I beat him at Narita, and I can do it again if I have to."

"It wouldn't matter if Suzaku couldn't walk," Deithard explained. "The Black Knights are Heroes of Justice, correct? If Britannia ceases to be unjust, then how can we fight them? How can the Japanese people support us as we fight them?"

"Knighting Suzaku does not absolve Britannia for invading our country," Todoh said. "Nor does it negate seven years of tyranny." His tone made it clear that Deithard was not included in the first person plural.

"What Deithard means," Zero interrupted, "is that Suzaku gives people hope. It won't help anyone, it won't make anyone's lives easier, but people will return for their fill again and again until they starve."

"Exactly!" Deithard said. "And that is why he should be assassinated as soon as possible."

"Is that the only thing you guys think about?" Mao asked. "This guy's a problem, bang, bang, done? Seriously, has killing people ever solved anything?" The Black Knights looked at him as if to say, "Does this guy really need to be here?" "Oh, right," he said after a moment. "Dang, I wish violence would solve some of my problems."

"I never had anything against the guy personally," Kallen said. It was hard to dislike someone like Suzaku when someone like Mao was right there. "But I do go to school with him, so I am in the best position if we need to have him…" She paused as she searched for the politically correct euphemism. "…murdered."

"I object to this strategy," Todoh said. "Suzaku may be a traitor, but he is still a warrior, and should die as such. He learned to fight by my hand, and it is my responsibility to see that he dies by it."

"With what, your Gekka?" Rakshata scoffed. "Lloyd's brain child won't be matched by anything short of my Guren. But while we're on the subject, if you could bring me back this Lancelot in one piece, I could do _things _with it."

"Of course, that would rule out assassination," Ohgi said. "We'd have to lure him out in his Knightmare, trap him, and carry off the Lancelot before the rest of the army catches up."

"I remember that at Narita he was pretty fast," Kallen said. "He'd be able to out run his back up if he's not cautious. But ultimately, it's up to you, Zero. What do you think?"

Zero leaned back in his chair and addressed his Knights. "For the time being, we will do nothing. The Japanese people will not thank us for destroying the symbol he has become, and I will not strike until after he has become…tarnished. But when the time comes to kill Kururugi, I will hold the gun. You all have your purposes here. You are warriors, scientists, publicists, but I am the assassin. I killed Clovis when he needed to die, and if Suzaku needs to die, I will kill him as well, but _I_ will decide if and when."

The Black Knights accepted his decision, some grudgingly, some confusedly, but they always did, in the end. They didn't understand that Euphemia's knight was exactly what he needed Suzaku to be right now, but they didn't need to. As the time passed, he kept on expecting some disaster to occur, for Cornelia to escape, perhaps, but nothing did. They continued working as the Black Knights, striking down injustice wherever they could find it, and gradually, the most important thing that seemed to be happening was the upcoming student festival.

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Princess Cornelia li Britannia's knight found himself faced against the greatest challenge of this career. Her Majesty had commanded him to protect her sister, but how do you protect a person from herself? Manipulation was the obvious answer, but Guilford did not know the art. His only art was war.

Princess Cornelia would have opposed the Special Administration Zone had she still been here. She would have been able to talk sense into Euphemia, but Guilford could do little besides watch the disaster happen. Euphemia wanted to create peace, and that was commendable, but it would also give the Elevens an unprecedented amount of freedom and economic prosperity, but if they could wage a war, the Elevens already had too much of the latter and were not ready for the former. And even if her plan worked, the Black Knights would vanish into nothing, and Guilford was not nearly done with them.

Villetta came into his office looking eager. Her art was more akin to the position of lesser nobility that she coveted. "I got a lead on Suzaku Kururugi." He trusted her like a jackal.

"Yes?" Technically it was Kururugi Suzaku; Elevens always put their last name first for some reason, but it wasn't relevant.

"It started in Shinjiku," she began. "I was in my Knightmare, then the next thing I knew, I was with that kid, Suzaku, handing him to the medics who were thanking me for taking care of him. A few days later, Zero shows up in costume to, out of all things, rescue that same kid from being executed. I asked Jeremiah about it afterwards, and he had the same story I did; intelligent, irrational behavior with memory loss."

Guilford nodded. None of this was new, but Zero's apparent connection to Suzaku was one of the reasons he opposed his promotion to Euphemia's personal knight.

"Then there was the event at the hotel at Lake Kawaguchi. I assumed that this was just a chance to introduce his organization, but why go out of his way to offend his most likely allies in favor of people who would try to kill him no matter what he did? Well, then I found out that Suzaku started attending a Britannian high school, and that same night several members of his student council were present at the hotel."

Guilford frowned. The existence of the connection was apparent, but the nature was not. "So you believe that Zero interfered with the hotel incident to save some of Suzaku's…acquaintances?" Guilford doubted that Suzaku, as the only Eleven in a school full of Britannians, would have made many friends very quickly. Of course, this was the same Suzaku who went out of his way to save Jeremiah's life, and _he_ had tried to have the Eleven executed.

"That's what the evidence points to."

"The evidence seems circumstantial, but continue."

"Then there was the Battle of Narita. Suzaku and Princess Cornelia ended up cornered against several of Zero's Knightmares. Cornelia is one of the best Knightmare pilots in the world, and when the Lancelot was released during Shinjuku, Suzaku cut through the stolen Sutherlands like butter. Faced against a handful of Burais, there shouldn't have been a problem, but the princess was torn out of her Knightmare and the Lancelot was wrecked."

"Many people left that battle in defeat, Villetta," he said. He was one of them.

"Of…of course, Guilford. I mean no disrespect. I'm just laying down the facts. Now, you're right; a lot of these events could be coincidental, but then Suzaku was left alive and his expensive, experimental Knightmare was left behind, and later he became Euphemia's knight. It took some digging, but I found out about a meeting with the two of them the night before she announced her decision. The official report was that it was an interview, but it was an interview half an hour away. I spoke with the driver, and he said that before he dropped her off, she seemed nervous, but afterwards, she seemed oddly cheerful. Apparently he thought that they went to a hotel for an intimate assessment of Suzaku's…well, you get the idea."

"Tread carefully, woman," Guilford said coldly. "It is a princess of Britannia you speak of, and Princess Cornelia's one true sister."

"Of course, Guilford," she said quickly. "I'm only relating what I've heard, but consider this: an innocent motive to hide a less innocent one. Most people would assume it stops there, but who's to say it did? What's to say that there isn't something even more sinister underneath?"

"Do you think that Zero was involved?"

"Think? I only think that Zero has a way of controlling people, that he has a connection to Suzaku Kururugi, and right after this meeting, not only did she knight Suzaku, but Euphemia started raving about giving Elevens extra rights in her Special Administration Zone."

Guilford narrowed his eyes. If Zero was controlling Euphemia…all major activities from the Black Knights had ceased since Suzaku became a knight, and why fight when you have the Viceroy in your pocket? "You understand that the Special Administration Zone will become official this afternoon."

Villetta smiled. "Then unless you have any other leads, we had better hurry."

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Lelouch threw his hand in the general direction of the off switch of his alarm clock. _Wait a second…it's Saturday._ He buried his face in his pillow to block out the sun shining through his window. He was up half the night with the Black Knights too often to waste his weekends being awake. Why had he set his alarm in the first place?

The school festival.

Lelouch forced himself to sit up and get out of bed. If he was late to the festival, Milly would have his hide. No, that wasn't like her. Instead, she'd just start some fanciful story about why he couldn't be there, perhaps involving smuggling, sabotage, and a king's ransom. Lelouch had a knack for attracting rumors, but nothing approached the truth.

He got dressed in his school uniform and put a contact in his left eye. As long as he was wearing the contact, he couldn't use his Geass. According to the previous timeline, he still had more than a week before he lost control of his power, but why risk it? He had a knack for disasters worse than rumors.

He had a surprise waiting for him in the living room. Sayoko grimly faced a pair of intruders, and Guilford and Villetta appeared annoyed that an Eleven stood in their way. Guilford turned to Lelouch.

"You are, I assume, the master of this household?"

Lelouch planted a polite smile on his face. What did they want? He knew both of them better than they knew him. Guilford was loyal, first and foremost, to Cornelia. Whom Zero had captured. He wouldn't be a problem, but Villetta was one of the first people he had used his Geass on, and she had managed to unravel both his power and his identity before. What had changed? Did she still know? No. If they had anything more than a suspicion, they'd bring Knightmares.

"I am," Lelouch said. Lelouch Lamperouge, as far as he could fake it. "Now, I don't mean to be rude, but I was not expecting guests."

Did he know their names? Villetta, definitely not, but Guilford…no, Lelouch Lamperouge decided. He'd know the former viceroy, but not her knight. He thought about asking Sayoko in Japanese what was going on, but a loyal Britannian was expected to be patriotically ignorant. Besides, what did he have to worry about? He was a loyal Britannian. Except that they weren't supposed to know where he lived.

"Government business," Guilford explained. "We would like to ask you a few questions."

A look of pure disgust crossed Sayoko's face.

"Just a few questions?" Lelouch asked skeptically. Politely, but skeptically.

Guilford frowned. "Your…" For a moment, he seemed about to say guard. "…maid, here, was rather antagonistic earlier. It was almost…suspicious."

Antagonistic? If Sayoko had been antagonistic, she'd have gotten out her kunais, and there'd be dead people pinned to the walls. What did she have to be antagonistic about anyway? Lelouch realized that while it was not widely approved, a high ranking officer could search someone's house without permission, but if asked to leave, they would need to produce a warrant. Suspicious? If they had found his Zero costume, people would start dying. Heck, if they had found a handgun in his bedroom they'd ask questions.

"Don't take offense," Lelouch said easily. "That's just her way with people. You get used to it eventually."

What would Lelouch Lamerouge want to hide from people? Definitely not evidence of terrorism. A secret porn stash under his bed? Did normal people actually have those? Of course, maybe they weren't after Zero at all. They could be looking for Lelouch vi Britannia instead.

The doorbell rang. Lelouch looked at Guilford and Villetta, but they weren't expecting anyone else either.

"I'll get that," C.C. said, walking past them. "It's probably for me." She ignored the tension in the room as she greeted a pizza-boy and purchased her breakfast. She set the pizza on the counter and took out a slice before she noticed that everyone was looking at her. "I don't intend on sharing, if that's what you're thinking."

Right then, Lelouch could have strangled her. "And you are…" Villetta prompted.

"C.C.," she responded. "Now, I know that you're Cornelia's knight, Guilford, but I don't know who you are."

"That's it!" Leouch said quickly. "I knew that I saw you somewhere before." He laughed. "Well, this is a surprise. What can I do for you?"

Villetta glared at him, annoyed at being interrupted. "You could answer a few questions for starters. For example, C.C. What is that, your initials?"

"They stand for Cassandra Casanova," Lelouch said quickly. C.C. shot him a murderous glance, one that he'd have to make sure they misunderstood. "Her father doesn't technically know she's here, so this business is confidential, right?" That would explain her look as well as her fake name, if they looked into it.

"The term is classified, but yes," Guilford said. "Although, is there a reason she's in a prison uniform?"

C.C. was seen during the battle of Narita, but neither of them seemed to recognize her. Prison uniform? Nunnally never noticed, and Sayoko didn't ask those kinds of questions, so Lelouch had gotten used to her wearing the same clothes he found her in, and hadn't realized how peculiar it looked. Until now. He threw on a roguish grin that looked a little guilty. "If your girlfriend looked that good in a prison uniform, would you complain?"

Great. He'd just given himself a…there was probably a name for the kind of fetish he'd just ascribed himself, but at least he didn't look suspicious.

"Anyway, what did you want to ask me about?"

"I understand that Princess Euphemia visited the premises three weeks ago. Would you care to describe the events that took place here?"

It was Lelouch vi Britannia they were looking for, then. Probably. He could use his Geass to make Guilford forget, or keep it a secret, but Villetta…exactly how many people would be concerned if she died?

"Sure," he said, still playing dumb. "But I don't understand why you can't ask the princess herself. Wait, you can ask her, can't you? Has something happened to her?"

"Perhaps," Guilford said.

Perhaps? He seemed serious, but either she was okay or she wasn't. And besides, the Black Knights were the biggest threat right now, and _they_ certainly hadn't done anything.

"Well, there's not much to say," Lelouch explained. "She had a few questions about my friend Suzaku." At Suzaku's name, Guilford and Villetta exchanged a look he didn't like. Well, it was too late now. "She was considering taking him on as her knight, and wanted some background info. I guess she liked what she heard."

"Was anyone else here?"

Lelouch shrugged. "My maid was here, and so was Suzaku, but that was it." If he mentioned Nunnally, they'd want to question her too, and she was off limits.

"Would you say that she was behaving…oddly?"

"I wouldn't have anything to compare it to. Also, what do you mean by _perhaps_ nothing happened to her?"

"That's classified."

"Then are you going to tell me what I'm accused of, at least? Because I feel accused right now. Or is that classified too?" Lelouch Lamperouge would be irritated by now, wouldn't he? And he'd be innocent, so he wouldn't need to hide it.

"Do you have any idea what has been going on with Euphemia since she came here? She's become the first Britannian princess _ever_ to promote an Honorary Britannian to Knighthood."

"Then I'll tell Suzaku to be more pathetic than he already is!" he retorted. "Though it worries me that the person in charge of making decisions for the entire settlement isn't fit to make decisions for herself."

"You have no right to speak about the viceroy like that!" Guilford snarled. "We don't even know if she's the same person anymore!"

_Bingo._ They knew that Zero could control people, they knew that Euphemia wasn't acting as they had hoped she would, and now they came to him, grasping at straws. Was she being controlled? Had she been replaced? They didn't know that he'd done anything. They didn't know if anything _had_ been done. They only feared, and hoped their fears were true.

"Sayoko?" he said. "Please take Nunnally to the festival. She won't want to miss it." He rubbed his eye and took out his contact. "I started wearing contacts a while ago. Never got used to them." No one responded, but Sayoko gave him a worried look as she left. "But anyway, I really don't know what you are concerned about." He'd have to be subtle about this, so Villetta wouldn't recognize what he was doing. "If the viceroy has made some political errors, well, she's young and that's why she's in charge of Area Eleven instead of someplace important. I'm sure that it's nothing to be worried about."

He activated his Geass.

"_Trust me."_

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"I still think we should have searched his house."

Guilford shook his head as they left. "There's no point. We have no evidence, and I wouldn't have Euphemia demanding why we were harassing people for being associated with her knight."

"Some other time when no one's home, then," Villetta suggested.

"Give it up. We've hit a dead end here. We might as well move on and find another lead."

"You can't be sure of that."

"No, but sometimes you can reason your way forward, and at other times, you just have to go with your gut. Was he lying to us? It's hard to tell, but I trust him."

"You trust him?" Villetta repeated, mostly to herself. She took a backwards glance.

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"Lelouch! Finally! What took you?"

Lelouch shrugged submissively and smiled at the student council president. "Sorry, Milly. My alarm clock didn't go off. I got here as soon as I woke up."

"Your alarm clock?" Milly repeated. "Who needs an alarm clock to wake up at eight in the morning? What were you _doing_ last night?"

"Reading." It didn't matter what he said, really. She wouldn't believe him anyway.

"Oh really?" she said skeptically. "Well, if you say so." She looked around. It was the job of the student council to organize the festival, so it was apparently Milly's job to boss everyone else around. "Let's have you manage the stockroom. Suzaku, take a fifteen minute break."

Suzaku peered at them over a box he was carrying. "Actually, I'm not really tired. I can keep on working if you want me to."

Milly smiled. "You know, I'm really glad you invited him into the student council, Lelouch. He's been here all morning. See, he's like you, only better."

"I'm sure I'll measure up somehow," Lelouch said, unconcerned.

Suzaku followed him into the stockroom and set down his box. He'd been meaning to have a talk with his old friend, but between his knighthood, school, and the preparations for the school festival, there just wasn't any time. And he really didn't want to have the talk in the first place.

"Hey, Lelouch? I've been wondering, why did you get Euphemia to make me her knight?"

"What do you mean? I didn't get her to knight you. That was her own mistake."

"You know what I mean. That night we all went over to your house, you spent half the time you were advertising me."

"If I was lying you should have contradicted me. Besides, do you think that Euphie doesn't have anyone else giving her advice? There are worse people in the world than me, and some of them are in her cabinet."

"That's not the point!" Suzaku protested. "If I only became her knight because I'm friends with her estranged brother, than I shouldn't have gotten knighted at all!"

"Well, I sincerely apologize for landing you your dream job," he said sarcastically. "I promise that I won't do it again."

"It's not that. It's just that I don't like getting something that I don't deserve."

Lelouch laughed coldly. "No one gets what they deserve, Suzaku. Do you deserve getting your gym clothes graffitied with racial slurs? When your people are beaten and killed for being part of the losing team, do they deserve it? And every day, the weak and innocent bleed out their lives and dreams so tyrants can live like pigs. Do they deserve it?"

Lelouch fell into dark moods, sometimes. Sometimes he became so filled with anger and contempt, it was a wonder Suzaku never saw it earlier. "And what about Zero? What does he deserve?

He hesitated. "He…why are you asking me?"

"Are you Zero?"

"Whatever gave you that idea?" He didn't miss a beat.

"I worked it out. Eventually, I asked Euphie, and she got really flustered and denied it emphatically."

"Well, I am," he admitted. "So, what, are you going to arrest me?"

Before he could stop himself, Suzaku punched him in the face, grabbed him by his collar, and slammed him against the wall. "You _murderer!_"

"Wow, coming from you, that almost means something," Lelouch replied with irritation. "Would you mind putting me down? You're stretching the fabric."

"Do you know how many people are dead because of you? This war was _over_ before you resurrected it!"

"Before the war, there was slaughter." Lelouch adjusted his wrist watch—and electrocuted him.

Suzaku dropped him and fell backwards in shock. "What…what was that?" he panted.

"Watch taser," Lelouch explained. "Rakshata designed it for me. I thought it was very…James Bond, but can you imagine losing the battle for the free world in a common brawl? I mean, I could just stick a bomb to my chest when things get dicey, but I really can do so much better than a stalemate."

"Rakshata?" Suzaku repeated, getting up. "Are you really sure you should be telling me these things?"

He shrugged. "Who are you going to tell? Anyone you tell will want to know how you found out, and you can't turn me in without going behind Euphemia's back, so you're just going to keep your mouth shut and follow orders, because you're a good person like that."

"I'm a good person like that," Suzaku repeated. "Coming from you, that's almost not an insult. But you're right. If I was that kind of guy, I'd have just shot you back in Shinjuku. And followed orders, I guess. Is that irony? But all that aside, _why_? People have died because of you!"

"And others have lived. One of these days you're going to thank me for saving your life."

"_Thank you?_ After digging up my dead father at Narita? What kind of friend are you anyway?"

"You were supposed to stay home sick that day," Lelouch explained.

He paused. "Wait, that was _you_?" Suzaku slammed him into the wall again, careful of his watch. "You _poisoned _me? Do you have any idea what it's like, cleaning throw up from the inside of a Knightmare?"

"You really should put me down, and for the last time, you can put that knife away. If I wanted him assassinated, I'd do it myself."

"What? I don't—" Kallen stood behind him with a knife and her face was a mask of cold fury. Cold, dead, and back for revenge. "But you…you're not…" He dropped Lelouch and backed away from both of them. "I really don't understand any of this."

"Me neither," Kallen responded, putting her knife away. "Every time we've talked about killing you, he's always told us no."

Kallen was one of the Black Knights? The quiet, frail girl that was barely awake half the time? That was even more ridiculous than Lelouch being Zero. "Do I want to know what you voted on?"

"What do you think we are, a democracy?" she scoffed. "I didn't vote."

"Huh."

"I volunteered. By the way, Todoh says hi, and that he's honor bound to kill you."

Suzaku looked at Kallen, then back to Lelouch. "Okay, I'm pretty sure that someone here has gone crazy, and I really hope it's not me."

"By the way, back to people who have lived and died because of me?" Lelouch said. "She's among the former, like you. Only she said thanks."

"You can be so full of yourself when you want to be," she said to Lelouch coldly, but didn't take her eyes off of Suzaku, and certainly didn't put her knife away.

"But—_why_? I mean, I know you've always had issues, Lelouch, but you didn't have to start a war over it."

"Did you think I was joking when I said I was going to crush Britannia?" he asked. "Let me put it this way. Have you ever read the book, _The Time Machine_?"

"The, what? No. Isn't that a science fiction story?"

"So?"

"I thought you hated sci-fi."

"What? No I don't. And that's not the point. Anyway, in the book, the human race has diverged into two different species: the Eloi, innocent, happy-go-lucky, childlike fairy people and the Morlocks, who eat them. And then there is the Time Traveller. He's enough like the Eloi to know why they should be protected, and he's enough like the Morlocks to be able to fight back."

"There are good people in the world, Suzaku. Good, innocent people who, in a just world, would be able to live in peace. And this world is going to devour them whole. Can you stop that, Suzaku? Because _I_ can. And I will."

"Because you're the Time Traveller?" Suzaku asked.

Lelouch smiled, as though at a private joke. "Yes. I'm the Time Traveller."

"And what gives you that right?" Suzaku demanded. "Who are you to decide who lives and who dies?"

"I never pretended to understand your sense of honor. I don't expect you to understand my sense of justice."

"If you think that you're allowed to do something just because you can, then you're no different from your father!" Suzaku regretted the words immediately. That was a secret Lelouch trusted him with, and he didn't know how much Kallen knew.

"You have no place to judge me!" he snapped. "You don't even know the ground you're standing on."

"Yes I do."

"Then what's that?" He pointed at the ground. "What is that, right now?"

If he called it Japan, he'd be disloyal to the empire that he had sworn allegiance to. If he called it Area Eleven, then he'd be turning his back on his people that he had joined Britannia to aid. You couldn't be loyal to anyone without betraying everyone else. "That is part of the world we share with are friends as well as our enemies," he said instead. "Political boundaries come secondary."

Just then, the door opened and Milly stepped in. She looked at the three of them, and took in Lelouch's ruffled jacket, Suzaku's naked aggression, and Kallen's apparent desire that Milly wasn't there. "I hope I'm not interrupting anything," she said, with a smile that implied the opposite.

"Not at all," Lelouch said. "What do you need?"

"I need someone to man the graveyard in the haunted house. The last guy passed out from heat exhaustion, so you're going to find someone else, Lelouch. Suzaku, we're going to do the giant pizza thing, so if you want to be the man in the Knightmare, you had better go now. And Kallen? It's just silly to make to guys fight over you when you can handle them both at once."

"Wait, what?"

"See you later!" Milly said, leaving quickly.

"But I wasn't—man, this is embarrassing," Kallen said. "I should try to set the record straight before she starts some sort of rumor about me."

"That's a bad idea," Lelouch said. "The best thing you can do with rumors is just leave them alone."

"But—"

"Look, remember how a few weeks ago, there was a rumor going around about how I was the kingpin of the settlement's white collar crime syndicate?"

"When was this?"

"Exactly."

"Wait, I remember that," Suzaku said, heading out the door. "I thought that it was ridiculous. I probably should rethink a lot of things now."

"So, why did you not want anyone to kill him?" Kallen asked. "I mean, I don't have anything against him personally, but he's a knight, a royal sellout, and he knows too much."

"Then it's his first time violation."

"I'm being serious. I've never been interested in the politics of it all, but Deithard had a point. Ever since Suzaku became the viceroy's golden boy, our support has been going down the toilet. I _was_ the best person for the job, until you opened your mouth."

"Shall I kill him because the people love him? He gives people hope. Must I monopolize that resource?"

"Well, if that hope is false…"

"All hope is false. Only victory is real, and the White Knight has delivered that no more than the Black Knights. If hope has merit by itself, I prefer the free market for the sake of efficiency."

"If you're sure that's a good idea," she said doubtfully.

"I am. Now, if you don't mind, I need to find a volunteer." He hesitated on his way out. "By the way, I wouldn't be able to convince you to work the graveyard, would I? It will probably be hot and humid, like your old Glasgow days."

"You mean the days I'm not nostalgic of?" Kallen responded. "I only do that if I get to kill Brits. And don't even think about making that an order. I only take orders from Zero."

"I am Zero. And I refuse to let you have my existential crisis. Get your own." He opened up the door. "I guess I'll get Nina to do it. She's scary enough."

"What? _Nina_? What's so scary about her?"

He smiled.

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Suzaku had started tossing the giant pizza dough into the air in front of the cheering crowds when Lelouch's cell phone rang.

"Hey, Euphie," he said. "Do you need something?"

"What? No. I just called to say hi. Can't I call you without needing something from you?"

"Sure, I guess. How's the Special Administration Zone coming? Hold on, aren't you supposed to go live on TV pretty soon to officially declare it?"

"Oh, no, I did that last night. It will just be broadcasted later today."

"So it's not live."

"I was live when they filmed it," Euphie said. "And I'll be alive when they broadcast it."

"But that's not…nevermind."

"But I really think I should have mentioned you," she said. "One of your aliases, at least. I feel like I'm plagiarizing or something."

"Really, Euphie, no one cares. You're probably the only politician in the country who hasn't cheated through high school."

"But I never got through high school."

"No one cares about that either. They never teach you how to run a country, anyway. Also, it wasn't my idea in the first place, so if you gave me the blame, you'd be lying."

"Whose was it then?"

"I'm not required to tell you, so you'll just have to blame yourself."

There was a pause. "Sometimes I wonder how Cornelia would have done things. I don't think she'd have done it like I have."

"No, not many people in the royal family look for the peaceful alternative. That's why I came to you and no one else."

"She's alright, isn't she?"

"I told you she was, didn't I?"

"Yes, but when are you going to let her go? I want to see her again."

"Look, if I let her out today, what do you think she'd do about the Special Administration Zone?"

"I don't think she'd like it, actually. She never listens to me. No, that's not true. She did listen to me during that hotel thing."

"What hotel thing?"

"You know, when the JLF people took a hotel hostage. Cornelia wanted to knock the building down, but I got her to wait for a while."

"That was you? I was wondering why she was holding herself back. But anyway, if she was free, she'd prevent you from opening the Special Administration Zone. But it would work. It will work. Now, if I let go after it works, then she'd have to admit you were right. I'm going to let her go, I promise, but after you prove yourself so well that not even Cornelia will believe that she could have done a better job."

"You could have done a better job."

"This—is not—about—me!" He lowered his voice quickly. "Besides, I'm dead, remember? Even if I came back to life, I doubt the emperor would be too keen to give me a seat of power in his world order."

"Yeah, I know. I'm just glad you didn't kill her," she said. "I still wish you didn't have to kill Clovis."

Their conversations always turned to this, eventually. "Do you remember what he was doing the day I…" He looked around to see if anyone was listening. "The day he died? He made a mess of his office, so to clean it up, he decided to clean out an entire ghetto. Over a thousand people, just because they were there. Now tell me, Euphie, tell me if a man like that deserves to live."

"I don't know! I mean, he shouldn't have killed anyone, but killing him didn't bring anyone back."

Lelouch shook his head. Nothing he said could break through her iron curtain of naiveté. He wasn't sure he wanted to.

"I'm at a school festival," he said, trying to change the subject.

"Yeah, Suzaku told me all about it!" she said. "Is he really going to make a giant pizza with a Knightmare frame?"

_Unless the festival turns into a disaster for the third time in a row. _"That's the plan. Yesterday's Knightmares are today's cookware. It's an odd sort of progress, but I could get behind it." He laughed softly. "You'd probably like it here, Euphie. They have games, cotton candy, and more ridiculous contests than you could imagine."

"I know! The cotton candy was great!"

"What? You're not—oh, no."

"What do you mean, oh no? That's kind of mean, Lelouch."

"You're not the disaster I need today. No offense."

"Well, Suzaku told me all about this, and it sounded like fun, so I thought, what the heck? I can take the day off."

"If anyone recognizes you, do you think pass yourself off as a comic impersonator?"

"You worry too much! No one will recognize me. I'm incognito."

"Let me guess. You're wearing a big hat with fake glasses."

She paused. "Okay, that was pretty creepy. How'd you do that?"

"I'm in charge of Area Eleven's top terrorist organization. I have to know practically everything."

"No you don't! I bet you just saw me. But I can't see you. Where are you, anyway?"

"Where are you?"

"I thought you knew everything."

"Practically. Do you see the big red tent with blue stripes?"

"The one with the rigged shooting game?"

"What?"

"The game's rigged, I tell you! I spent fifteen dollars on that thing, and I didn't even get the stuffed penguin!"

"Maybe you're just a terrible shot."

"No I'm not! Well, I am, but it's still a rigged game."

"Anyway, you know the place. I'll meet you there in a few minutes."

"Okay, I'll see you there. Bye!"

"I'll see you later."

He hung up. Ever since he became Zero, every school festival had been a disaster. It was sad that he could try to change the world when he couldn't even manage a high school event. This was the third time so far. It was also the first.

"Hey, Lelouch. When's the pizza ready?"

"Hey, C.C. The pizza will be—" He stopped. "You crazy, reckless, idiotic fool of a woman! What are you doing here?"

"I'm being rudely insulted and waiting for pizza. And you?"

"I'm trying to prevent a disaster from occurring."

"So it's the usual for both of us."

"Alright, I'm sorry I yelled at you. In fact, I'm not even surprised anymore. Risking my ambitions, this war, and the world itself never stopped you from a giant pizza before, and I don't see why it should now." She was wearing one of Nunnally's school uniforms. "Though you will stand out dressed like that. No one's going to believe that you're fifteen years old."

"Well, you could just say that I was held back for nine hundred years."

"Is that how old you are?"

"I could be. The calendars keep on changing on me so it's hard to tell. Anyway, you worry too much, Lelouch. I wouldn't risk your ability to fulfill our contract for a giant pizza when I can get all I want with your credit card."

"Yeah? And what happened this morning?"

"That was a test. If there were people looking for me in the government, you could just use your Geass to make them forget they saw me, and I'd just stay home today."

"C.C., one of those two people was one of the first people I used my Geass on!"

She paused for a moment. "You really should tell me about these things beforehand. That could have been very dangerous for you."

"For me? I—never mind. Even if Villetta and Guilford didn't recognize you, Suzaku still will."

"So? He already knows who you are, so I don't see how that matters."

"You knew about that?"

"Of course," C.C. said. "Mao told me a few days ago."

"I wish he told me," Lelouch muttered. "Though I guess he has to get his laughs somewhere."

"Really? I doubt he's close enough to hear. He doesn't do well with crowds."

Lelouch filed away that nugget of information instinctively, though really he couldn't do much against Mao besides keep him in a position where he couldn't kill him and get away with it. He didn't like working with a plan that depended on Mao's predictable insanity, but it had worked out so far and was better than the alternative.

"Well, anyway, just stay out of trouble. As a member of the student council, it is my responsibility to make sure that events like these don't turn into flaming disasters like that last two. How superior Knightmare pilots can consistently screw up a giant pizza is a mystery."

"But the pizza will be fine this time, right?" The concern in her voice was evident.

"We'll see. I'm not strictly in charge of everything, and things like that tend to go up in smoke. But now I have to see a princess and make sure she doesn't do anything foolish." He considered making a comment about how women had no sense of caution—or much else—but he didn't believe in taking foolish risks.

He found Euphie by the striped tent as planned—talking to Rivalz, of all people. Rivalz held a chef's hat under his arm and was wearing a large, fake mustache.

Euphie waved. "Lelouch! What took you so long?"

"Wait, you two know each other?" Rivalz asked. "That is so…typical, actually."

"Hey, Rivalz. Don't you have to be doing that, uh, thing?" He hoped that there was a thing that Rivalz had to be doing.

He checked his watch. "Not until—ah, crap, I have to go. Lelouch, I need to have a word with you really fast."

They walked off a short distance before Rivalz continued. "Who is she?"

"Who's who?"

"That's what I'm asking you! And don't try to say that you two are dating, because I know you're not."

"How do you know?" Lelouch asked. "We could be."

Rivalz hesitated. "I don't know how to say it without insulting you, and I need a favor right now."

Lelouch smirked. "People I respect much more than you have tried to insult me before, and it didn't work."

"Okay, fine. Because she's the perfect woman and you're you," he said bluntly

Lelouch considered that. "I don't think I can argue with either statement."

"So do you think you could set me up with her? I know she doesn't go to school here, but that's it."

"I could, but I can tell you know that you're not her type."

"What makes you say that?"

"Because she's the perfect woman and you're you, maybe?"

Rivalz glared at him. "Okay, I admit I set myself up for that one. That's also true, but _she_ doesn't know that!"

"Also, weren't you interested in Milly? What happened to that?"

"Gee, I don't know, maybe she _got engaged_? She's not exactly what I'd call available right now."

"Yeah, but to someone called the Earl of Pudding? Is that the sort of name of someone committed to a serious relationship?"

"He's an _earl_, Lelouch, an_ earl_! I can't compete with a guy with a title!"

"So? Titles don't matter."

"Does Milly know that? I didn't think so. But that's not the point."

"Okay, okay. She is Euphemia, princess of Britannia, and viceroy of Area Eleven. She's also dating Suzaku."

Rivalz gave him a level look. "Are you joking?"

"What do you think?"

"I think that I'm not that politically minded, but I'd recognize my own viceroy if I saw her. Besides, Euphemia doesn't wear glasses."

"Fine," Lelouch said. "Although I was serious about that girl dating Suzaku."

"Dang it! That's just because he's a knight, isn't it? Man, I need to get me some of that rank stuff."

"Well, if I ever take over, I'll be sure to give you a seat of power in my new world order."

"Much obliged. Well, I better get going. They can't do the giant pizza thing without me."

"Is that what the fake mustache is for?"

Rivalz felt his face with horror. "Oh, crap! Did I have this on the whole time? I'm such an idiot."

"Yep." Rivalz glared at him. "As in, yes you did have it on the whole time."

"Sure." He put on his giant, white chef's hat and ran off.

"So, what was that about?" Euphie asked afterwards.

"Student council business," Lelouch explained. "Also, your disguise is more effective than I thought it would be."

"See! I told you! You worry too much. You always do."

_Someone has to._ "Yeah, you're right," he said instead. "I always stress out too much about these things."

"You'll never have fun at these things like that. Hey, look! They're starting the giant pizza thing! Suzaku's in the Ganymede, right now, right? Wow, they didn't even _have_ Knightmares at my high school!"

"Yeah, here they have all the Knightmares a school needs," he said dryly.

Suzaku tossed the pizza without incident, and for the first time in three school festivals, the pizza dough didn't end up on someone's head. You can't make a pizza larger than a human and expect it to cook right, but that wasn't the point. The point was to have a second chance to do things right, even the little things. Especially the little things. He noticed an origami crane in Euphie's hand.

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Euphemia's announcement of the Special Administration Zone became public later that day, and Zero was one of the only members of the Black Knights who wasn't surprised. Or concerned.

"I find it ironic," Todoh noted at a meeting, "that our greatest threat against the greatest military power in the world should come from a pacifist."

"Todoh's right," Ohgi said. "You once said that you didn't want to assassinate Euphemia because she'd just be replaced by someone worse. I think it's time we reconsider. She's proving to be more of a threat than her sister ever was."

Mao perked up. "Is this the part where we brainstorm murder ideas? I say we get Suzaku to kill her."

Todoh closed his eyes, looking for calm. "Suzaku does not work for us."

Mao shrugged. "So? I bet I could get him to do it. Just give me two weeks, a fluffy red marionette, and a paper clip, and I'll give you a tarnished knight."

Todoh turned to his commander. "Zero, does your questionably sane interrogator really need to be at these meetings?"

"What's questionable about it?" Mao asked. "If you have any questions for my sanity, you can ask them any time you like, such as, what will your people think when we kill a pretty, little girl for being nice to them?"

"As much as I hate to admit it," Deithard said, "he has a point. We'll have to pin the murder on someone else."

Zero finally spoke up. "I will not divide our allies to kill someone who has so effectively divided our foes."

"That's a good idea," Deithard said. "The same moves that have gained Euphemia favor with the Japanese and the Elevens are causing discontent among her own people. If we can make it look like a Britannian faction killed her, then we can prove once and for all that Britannia will never allow the Japanese to live in peace. We can _prove_ that they have no hope but us."

"I do not believe that the Japanese people have fallen so far as to sell themselves for table scraps," Zero said. "I do not believe that they are entirely without pride. Some will accept her offer of peace, I know. Some people have been fighting for so long that they only wish to rest. Some people would rather be safe than free. But those are not the people who have supported us. And if I am wrong, if they throw down their arms as one body and accept the peace that is offered them, there is something that we should ask ourselves: Who is it that we are fighting for?"

"But until then, consider this: Euphemia, by our actions and by chance, has fallen into a position of leadership over Area Eleven, and since then has done more to promote equality than any Britannian official who ever ruled here. So ask yourselves, what was her crime for which she must die?"

It was sad, really, how quickly his men failed to meet his gaze. He didn't even have eyes that they could look at. But they called themselves Heroes of Justice, and, at some degree or another, they believed that.

"So that's it?" Kallen said softly, finally breaking the silence. "We just let them walk over us?"

"No," Zero responded. "We fight until the people no longer need us. And when that day comes, it will not mean that we have given up, but that we have won."

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Kallen confronted Zero in his office after the meeting. She never did that before he took off his mask, but now, well, a man with a face was much less intimidating than a man without one.

"What are you really up to?" she asked.

Zero took off his mask and set it on a table. Did he do that to irritate her, or did the mask just make him uncomfortable? "What, you think that I would go this far, risking the lives of people who trust me and then _lie_ to them? I should be insulted."

Kallen rolled her eyes. "I'm not stupid and I'm not gullible, Zero. I know you didn't try to kill Suzaku because he's your friend and all, but is that why you're not doing anything about the viceroy?"

"It is true that if I killed Euphemia, Suzaku would hunt me down to the ends of the earth, and I would like to discourage that," Zero said. "It is not true that our friendship is what stayed my hand before or now. Suzaku is most useful to me in the position he is in now, and even Euphemia is an anomaly. She thinks with her heart instead of her head, making her hard to predict but easy to manipulate."

"Manipulate? I, for one, haven't seen much manipulating going on," Kallen said. "Unless the whole Special Administration Zone was your idea."

There was a glint in his eye as a slow smile spread across his face. "And what if I were to tell you that it was?"

She paused. "Then I'd have to guess that you have one heck of a plan somewhere, because that sounds really idiotic. Unless…" She narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "You're not getting tired of this war, are you?"

She half expected him to feel insulted, but instead he threw his head back and laughed. "Tired? This war is what gets me up in the morning. If I stopped, what would I have to go back to? A quiet, peaceful life in a world I couldn't change? No, there is no going back. For any of us. I will see this conflict through until our victory or my death."

"So I guess that means you have a clever plan, then."

Lelouch smiled and, instead of answering, pulled out a chess set. "Do you play?"

"I _have_ played, but not much." She remembered Shirley complaining once about how Lelouch would make money playing high stakes chess games, and Rivalz mentioned that he had stopped after finding an interest in some other hobby. It was only later that Kallen realized what that was.

Lelouch set up the pieces into a position midway through a game. "I don't recall the exact scenarios of every game I've ever played, but this was a special case. The last time I was in China, I ran into an old acquaintance that I had never before been able to beat. The end of the game was as you see here."

It looked at first like white was winning, but that was just because they had more pieces. While black had no major pieces besides a queen and a knight, white had two bishops, a knight, and a rook, as well as most of the pawns. The odd thing about the board was that both of the kings were in the middle of it, instead of hiding on the back row like they usually do.

"At this point, my opponent, playing white, moved his king forward, thus." He pushed the white king adjacent to the black one, and waited for Kallen to respond.

"That's not allowed," she said. "You're not allowed to move your king into check."

"True," he conceded. "But there was no one but ourselves to enforce those rules, and part of knowing how to do something right is learning how and when to do it wrong. But you see the dilemma, don't you? If I had taken his king, I would have won the game, but lost the victory. I would have admitted that he was my equal, if not my superior, and that I could do no better than accept whatever was offered me."

"In _this_ game, however, there is much more at risk than a few lifeless pieces of wood. In this game, we cannot afford the luxury of pride. If there is any cheap, dirty, demeaning path to victory, we owe it to the several billion people in the world to take it."

"Hold on," Kallen said. "You're not making sense anymore. You say that you're going to stick with this fight until you win or die. You also say that we should try to win by any means necessary. And yet you refuse to move against Euphemia, even though what she's doing could cripple us."

"You raise a valid point, Kallen," he said. "And you would be right, except that the princess is not our enemy. Our enemy is the emperor. He has so far permitted us, partially because he wants to recapture C.C. for his own agenda and that can only be done subtly, and partially because our forces are beneath contempt. However, he'd expect us to find Euphemia's proposal to be tempting. We get nearly everything we were fighting for, and we never really had a chance at winning anyway. Going along with the Special Administration Zone would not be our victory, but it wouldn't mean a defeat, either." He leaned forward across his desk and looked her straight in the eye. "If you were the most powerful man in the world, would you settle for a stalemate?"

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Lelouch wasn't sure if Kallen was convinced when she left his office, or if she just understood that she had nowhere else to go. He liked to think that most of the Black Knights believed in him and trusted him, but sometimes he wondered if they didn't just follow him to get front row seats to the next big disaster. Well, every victory was a disaster for someone else.

Was he getting tired of this war? That question had bothered him. He realized that he was tired of doing the same thing he had done once before, of climbing up the same ladder he had already climbed. And most of all, he was tired of wasting time on fights that had no meaning. He didn't want to wage a war against his sister and his friend, and he didn't need to. He just needed to provoke the emperor into getting involved.

He'd tell Kallen who his father was, later, if it became relevant. It shouldn't still mean anything after all these years. Lelouch had expected his paternal anger to subside quiet embers, but it never did. Even waging his vendetta against the royal family and killing Clovis twice hadn't helped. On those days when he performed such atrocious acts that he couldn't even tell his band of terrorists about them, his pretty words and high ideals had done nothing to keep his father's face out of the mirror.

And yet, it was because Lelouch knew his father that he could trust his gambit to pay off. The emperor was a man of ideals in a way that Lelouch never was. He believed in strength, that ability and will were reason enough for anything, and had placed his own children on the altar of social Darwinism. How would such a man respond to the peaceful solution? He'd expect his prodigal son to respond first, and prove himself over the dead body of his weaker, simple minded sister, but what if Lelouch took the surprise route and did nothing?

The ninety-eighth emperor wouldn't take it as a joke, or even an insult. He'd take it as the deepest pitch of blasphemy.

And so Zero did nothing, and waited. Sure, some of the Black Knights whispered that Zero had lost his passion, but he had lost nothing but the initiative. And what good was the initiative, really? The initiative was white's strategy, and Zero always played black. White could stay one step ahead by moving first, but in that one move, the player could reveal everything. Did he favor defense or offense? Did he take off pieces one by one or did he go straight for the king? Black moved second, but he made his move knowing his opponent. And knowing was what the game was all about.

_The stage is set, the prize hangs in the air, and the clock is ticking._

_Your move._

WWW

a/n And that's the end of part one. I bet some of you thought that I was never going to finish this, that this story was going to be one of those that started out great and never ended. "Well, I liked that story at first, until the author got abducted by aliens." Well, now would be the time for those darn aliens, because this is definitely not an ending. It's just the halfway point.

Your Past, My Future will continue in Risks and Sacrifices. I had a lot of conflicting ideas about how to handle the sequel, and by a lot I mean two. Here's an excerpt from the idea I didn't go with.

_Kallen made her way through the smoldering ruin that had once been a city. How could this happen? There hadn't been destruction on this scale sense…no. Even the war eight years ago hadn't come close._

"_Dead, dead, dead," Mao sang merrily, skipping among the debris. "The sky is painted red. I sing this song 'cause hope is gone and everybody's dead."_

"_This is serious, Mao!" Kallen snapped. "And you don't know that."_

_Mao laughed. "Only one person could have survived _that_, and she doesn't wear a cape."_

"_I'll believe that Zero's dead when I see the body." She didn't say that there probably wouldn't even be a body left, after that explosion. And the Gawain had no ejection system didn't help either. But Zero was a man of miracles, right? And if there was a time for a miracle, it was now. Mao kept on laughing. "Would you cut that out? We're supposed to be looking for him."_

"_I am looking for him," Mao replied. "And he's not within five hundred meters if he's alive. And if he's not, he's probably in your lungs."_

_Just then, a gloved hand broke through the rubble, reaching out toward the sky like a plant. Kallen gasped. She'd recognize that glove anywhere. Holding back the tears, she dug him out of the ground. It was an impossible miracle, but that was who Zero was._

_Zero stood in his tattered suit and cape and mask, covered in soot and soil. Mao took emptied his handgun at him._

"_No!" Kallen screamed. She fired her own gun at Mao, but it was too late. Both men lay bleeding on the ground._

"_You _killed_ her!" Mao coughed. "You _killed_ her! You broke your promise and killed her!"_

Why?_ Kallen stood dazed in between them. She couldn't have come all this way just to watch Zero get killed for no reason. And then, cheating death for the second time that day, Zero sat up._

"_What? But—how?"_

_One of the bullets had shattered his mask, and it fell in chips off his face. There was a tattoo on his forehead that wasn't there before, one just like the one C.C. had. _

"_Questions, Kallen, questions," he said, standing up despite his wounds. He knelt down next to Mao and closed the corpse's eyes reverently. "I don't have the answers to all of them right now, and for some of them I never will. But right now, only one matters."_

"_Would you like to form a contract?"_

I thought about doing it that way, but I didn't want to kill Mao and coming up with a bunch of Geass powers seemed like a lot of work, but if I finish Risks and Sacrifices, I might go back and do the alternate ending.

I admit that I have never read _The Time Machine_, but I did see the Wishbone version and I did look it up on Wikipedia. Did I go out of my way to make a pun that I've been planning for several chapters? Yes. Yes I did. If you haven't figured this out yet, I have no shame at all.

I just want to thank all the people who reviewed this story, you know, over _four hundred times_, not that I'm bragging or anything, I mean, I didn't review my story at all, and if it weren't for you, I'd have gotten bored and done something constructive with my life. But really, you're encouragement means a lot. I'd also like to thank the internet for knowing everything, including the obscure facts that I need to know. And finally, I'd like to thank Michael Jackson, for teaching zombies how to dance.


	13. Chapter 13

Your Past, My Future

Chapter Thirteen

Just kidding. I'm just here to tell you that the sequel is up. I just submitted it. I know, that was fast, right? It's called Risks and Sacrifices. I didn't change my mind. Well, it seems like such a waste to bring you all here and say hardly nothing, so I have decided to compose a poem.

There once were dogs with flapping wings,

Some would bark while another sings,

They would not fly, for they feared the sky,

So they sat in the shade and ate onion rings.


End file.
